Health care reform is a pivotal issue for me because our community suffers greatly from increasing costs, the need to provide services to the uninsured and a health care system under considerable stress as a result. There is also a deep personal element to my desire for meaningful health care reform that includes a robust public option.

At 18, I lost my kidney function. I’m a productive citizen 40 years later because there was a public option available to cover the costs of dialysis and transplantation: Medicare. Without it my family wouldn’t have been able to afford the crushing costs, and my death would have been the most likely outcome.

Moderate Democrats like Sen. Maria Cantwell are defeating our opportunity to give everyone access to higher-quality and lower-cost health care by opposing the public option.

Don’t be confused by her call for an ineffective regional cooperative as a substitute for a nationwide public option. It boggles my mind that she is taking this stance. It certainly isn’t what the people of Washington want; it’s what the insurance companies want.

I urge Cantwell to support the public option. And I’d like to remind her that we don’t need 60 votes to pass health care reform; 51 will do nicely, thank you.