You're invited to join Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-Ca.) in a telephone conference call about health care reform legislation at 8:30 a.m. Pacific, 11:30 a.m. Eastern on Thursday, Oct. 15. The first 20 BlogHers who sign up in the comments below will be sent call-in information. More details below.

It's a big week for this controversial legislation. Five health care reform bills are moving through Congress and today the Senate Finance Committee meets to take a final vote on their version, the most conservative of the bunch according to OpenCongress.org.

Speaker Pelosi herself sent three versions of H.R. 3200 to the Congressional Budget Office for analysis last week, stating as she did that "it's very clear from our conversations with the members that the votes are there for a public option." (Source: Capitol Briefing.)

The public option has been the speaker's rallying cry since July, when she said,

"The glory days are coming to an end for the health insurance industry in our country. I have said that their profits are obscene, they have increased enormously over the past few years at the expense of America's consumers. And that's why what's in it for the consumers in our bill is that no longer will an insurance company be able to withhold insurance because you have a pre-existing medical condition. No longer can they pull back or rescind your insurance if you get more ill. No longer will you lose your health ins if you lose your job, change jobs, start a business, be self-employed. You will still have health insurance and think of what that means for the vitality of our economy, so we can encourage entrepreneurship while people have the confidence that they will have health insurance and can take more risks."

This quote begins at one minute, twenty-nine seconds (01:29) into this YouTube video:

You're invited to sign up on a first-come, first-served basis to join us when BlogHer moderates a telephone conference call with Speaker Pelosi at 11:30 a.m. Eastern, 8:30 a.m. Pacific on Thursday, Oct. 15. Please add your name below and any blog URL if you have one (that's not required :). We'll be back in touch with the phone number and logistics. We have room for a group of 20 bloggers, who will join BlogHer's contributing editors from both sides of the aisle.

If you're unable to attend, no worries -- please leave your question in the comments below and we will try to ask for you.

This call is the fourth of BlogHer's bi-partisan series of telephone conference discussions to connect women bloggers directly with legislators, in partnership with the Sunlight Foundation and OpenCongress.org. You can hear audio and read transcripts of our discussions at the links below:

Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash)

Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn)

Rep. George Miller (D-Ca)

We hope you join us!

Best,
Lisa
for Elisa, Jory and Lisa
BlogHer Co-founders