Another month, another 600,000+ jobs gone. How many of those people had health insurance and how many were covered on each policy? Even though we know that many jobs don't carry health insurance, those that did likely covered a family, making it easily possible that more than 600,000 more people are uninsured. With unemployment at 8.5% and rising, our employment-based health insurance system is falling apart rapidly.

This underscores the importance of passing health insurance reform now. As I've always argued, single payer is the only way to fix the legacy costs to the Big Three automakers.

Moreover, cutting out the insurance companies will help pay for the expansion to universal insurance, a factor that could loom large since cap-and-pay and the revenue it will bring in does not appear to have enough support from Democratic Senators. If those moderates won't pass health care reform through reconciliation, millions of people will be well and truly screwed. Ask your Senators how many people have lost health insurance in your state and stay on their case. This is one battle we can't afford to wait two more years on.