Freshman Senators Fight for Lower Costs in Health Care

by Seth Michaels, Dec 8, 2009

Sue Conrad, an AFSCME retiree, is one of the thousands of union members fighting for health care reform.

Today in the U.S. Senate, 11 first-term senators are introducing a package of amendments that will improve the Senate’s health care bill by getting health care costs under control.

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka says the Senate should pass this set of amendments to improve health care for all families and make our health care system more sustainable in the long term:

These senators have their eyes on what’s most important to all Americans—affordable, high-quality health care that will be there when we need it. We must transform our current health care system into one that rewards value-constraining cost growth without compromising care.

A number of the amendments announced today would, individually, represent significant steps forward from the current draft Senate legislation. Taken together, however, they amount to a robust expansion of critically important provisions in the legislation. 

But these measures alone will not fix a broken health care system. We need a strong public health insurance option to keep insurance companies honest and fair financing—with employers shouldering their responsibility and no new taxes on health benefits. 

The Washington Post’s Ezra Klein has posted the amendment package here.

Meanwhile, union leaders and activists from 18 states will fly in to Washington, D.C., tomorrow to meet with their senators and representatives and ask them to support real health care reform. It’s a critical time, with the Senate debating the future of health care reform on—and off—the Senate floor.

In Wisconsin and other states, union members are getting engaged at health care town halls, rallies and roundtable discussions. Union members have delivered hundreds of thousands of calls and letters to Congress, and union leaders will deliver thousands more letters during tomorrow’s Hill visits.

Here’s more news from the fight for health care reform:

• The Communications Workers of America (CWA) is launching a major campaign to make sure health care is fairly funded—not paid for with a tax on workers’ benefits.
• MoveOn.org will host more than 250 vigils around the country tonight in support of health care reform.
• BusinessWeek says small businesses need, and will benefit from, health care reform.
• As Think Progress reports, Blue Cross Blue Shield is funneling money to groups trying to declare health care reform unconstitutional.
• Art Levine, writing at In These Times, reports on union members’ efforts to protect a public health insurance option and fight a tax on benefits.
• Media Matters notes that opponents of health care reform also have voted for billions in cuts to Medicare.

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