The only reason a public option now remains a stranger to health care reform is that Speaker Pelosi does not trust the Senate to do the right thing and pass what the House puts in any “sidecar” bill it is now crafting. This is regardless of the fact that 41 senators have pledged support for the public option and the Senate Majority Whip, Dick Durbin (D.-Ill) has said he will “whip” anything that comes over from the House. Isn’t it time that elected officials stop screwing around with our health and start trusting one another so that the public option is passed into law?

It is high time that President Obama get mad as hell and not take what his Democratic colleagues in the Senate are dishing out at him. He has to roll up his sleeves and get his hands dirty. After all, change that he wants with health care reform is the grease underneath his fingernails.

The battle to ensure real health care reform has now begun though it is in the home stretch. The lines are clearly drawn: corporate America versus millions at the grassroots level. The measure of success will be in the motivation and inspiration who want to ensure that all Americans can access and afford health care in our country – - – as if it were a right, or a community service like bringing heat to warm our homes or riding the municipal bus that takes us to our jobs.

With the Senate Finance Committee passing its version of health care reform, the war between health care insurers and those they insure has now begun. But it will be the will of the people that will overcome the greed of the insurance industry that will prevail; otherwise, we will all be “raped” by the health insurance industry before year’s end.

Health care reform, particularly understanding why the public option is so critical, can be boiled down to four simple words: accessibility, affordability, choice, and competition.