I’m a small business owner. I’m for meaningful health care reform, including a public option. I’m even ready to put my money where my bleeding heart is:

Top Five Taxes I’m Willing to Pay in Exchange for the Public Option

1. Soft Drinks
A tax on soft drinks, including those neon-colored non-carbonates disguised as “fruit juice” is the best idea I’ve heard this year.
2. Sweets
While you’re at it, Senator, tax my circus peanuts. I love circus peanuts and, God help me, I’ll keep buying them when they cost a few pennies more.
3. Fast Food
I try to avoid it anyway (puts money in my pocket for more circus peanuts).
4. Small Business Tax
Find some clever way to hit my business, and I’ll love you even better if you cover my small-potatoes self with a sliding scale.
5. Income Tax
Direct and simple. Take my money, please.

Why does the public option appeal to me?

Security.

Sure, competition and cost controls are great and wonderful and necessary – but really, it comes down to security: eliminating the fear of diagnosis. Because, in the corporate-controlled system we’re in, diagnosis is already a trigger for rationed care.

Since Mike lost his job in July, we’re still covered under COBRA. (By the way, our premium is more than $500 per month for our family of three, even with the 65% reduction currently in place. That’s almost half our mortgage payment.) We have this coverage for six months – after that, who knows what kind of insurance, if any, we’ll be able to afford?

I just turned 40. Guess why I’m not calling my doctor to arrange a mammogram?

Just in case, that’s why. Because health insurance companies have turned preventative care into an at-your-own-risk gamble.

I know you’re struggling with the same issues. You know folks, like I do, who don’t have insurance. That’s bad enough – but you also know that having health insurance is no guarantee of coverage, either. You have friends who’ve bumped up against annual or even lifetime limits; family members who were denied treatment. You’ve seen how past history impacts current premiums. You know, same as I do:

The government is accountable to us. The CEO of UnitedHealth Group is not.

That’s why I’m willing to throw the first circus peanut into the ring and shout, “Tax me, Mr. President!” (Gosh, I hope I get my circus peanut back.)

I’m a small business owner, and I’m willing to pay for the security and well-being that sky-high private insurance premiums just … don’t … cover. Choke on that, Murdoch.