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I have asked my Congressman to vote against the current House bill, HR 3962.  I know there are strong arguments on both sides of this issue.  These are my top 4 reasons for my choice (apart from the Stupak amendment, which ought to kill the bill in its own right).

4. It strengthens the most destructive part of the current system, the profit-driven insurance industry, giving then millions of new customers, more profits, and the ability to buy even more lobbyists (read:  members of Congress).

3. It will set back true health care reform for I-don't-know-how-many election cycles.  Why?  The "public option" carries the seeds of its own destruction:  It allows in too few people to make it economically viable.  Its economic demands (the requirement that it pay for itself, including start-up costs; its reliance on premiums; its inability to set payment rates) mean that its premiums will be higher than those of comparable private policies, thus driving out even more people. etc.  When it inevitably fails, people will say, Gosh, we tried "government-run health insurance" and it sucked; see, the government can't do anything right.

2. Most of its provisions don't take effect until after the 2012 elections, so the arguments about needing to pass it because reform can't wait are moot.  Congress can make better use of that time by putting in place stronger insurance regulation, without wasting political capital on something that is called (but is not) "health care reform."  And we can make use of that time to step up our education and lobbying efforts for REAL reform.

1. Maybe the most important point:  We need to tell these Democrats who their base is and what it is we want.  We need to make it clear to them that they can't pull this kind of stunt and expect us to vote for them.