Maine Union Members Tell Snowe to Support a Public Option, and More Health Care News
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When Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) suggested she would block health care reform if it included a public option, Maine workers took action: The Maine AFL-CIO put its convention on hold so attendees could call her and tell her that a public option is essential to make reform work. (Recent polls in Maine suggest Mainers strongly support a public option.)
Here are some of the latest developments in the fight for real health care reform:
- Momentum is building for a public option in final bills being crafted in the U.S. Senate and the House. This is a critical time to contact your senators and representatives.
- Big companies like Wal-Mart are lobbying hard to exempt the coverage they provide from health care reform. That would leave tens of millions of workers stuck in the same high-cost, no-guarantee system we have today.
- 55 members of Congress who oppose giving America the choice of a public option are actually getting government-administered health care through Medicare.
Senate Finance Passes Health Care Reform Bill. Public Option Still AWOL
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The Senate Finance Committee this afternoon approved what one panel member called “a down payment” on health care reform. By a 14-9 vote, the committee approved a bill that Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) says is ”a down payment and…the start of reforms.”
Joining all 13 Democrats on the committee was Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine).
The committee bill, crafted for the most part by Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.), provides important insurance industry reforms and improvements in how health care is delivered and paid for with a focus on quality over quantity.
Dear Senator: Please Support Public Option and Save My Life
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Today, state and local union activists are continuing to deliver the more than 42,000 personally written letters from union members and Working America members calling on Congress to pass comprehensive health care reform legislation.
The letters are part of a massive nationwide week of health care action. Union leaders and activists are spending two days in Washington, D.C., delivering the letters and talking with their senators and representatives about the need for strong health care reform legislation that provides guaranteed coverage for all, includes a public health insurance option and more.
Yesterday, working Americans across the country took part in the National Call-In Day for Health Care Reform, sending their senators strong messages.
Health Care Reform Needs Public Option—Not Band-Aid
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Today, union and health care activists around the country are raising their voices against the private health insurance companies’ mutlimillion-dollar campaign to block health care reform. In dozens of rallies and demonstrations they are saying: “Big Insurance: We’re sick of it.”
Union members are joining a march on Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association’s Portland, Ore., headquarters. In a letter to Blue Cross President Scott Serota, Oregon AFL-CIO President Tom Chamberlain calls on the company to cease opposition to a public health insurance option and stop the use of union members’ premium payments to fund lobbying against a public option.
Union members in Oregon have spent too many years at the bargaining table knowing that they have to choose between bargaining for better wages, or maintaining their healthcare. This is unsustainable; healthcare reform with true cost controls is necessary. For union members to now see their healthcare dollars spent lobbying against the reform they support is absolutely unacceptable.
Maine Union Members Rally for Employee Free Choice
On Friday in Portland, Maine, dozens of union members and allies took to the street to demand justice for workers and the passage of the Employee Free Choice Act.
Union members held a 23-minute vigil in Portland’s Lobsterman Park to highlight how a worker is discriminated against because of his or her union activity every 23 minutes. Union members rallied in support of restoring the freedom to form unions and bargain and asked their members of Congress, especially Sen. Olympia Snowe, to vote for passage of the Employee Free Choice Act. Maine AFL-CIO President Ed Gorham said:
It is a travesty that the workers of Maine have their right to association systematically denied by a process that provides no protection from harassment and intimidation. We are here to remind Senator Snowe that we need the Employee Free Choice Act, for our families and our communities.
Senate-Passed Recovery Bill Would Create Jobs; Republicans Bent on Killing It
The Senate this afternoon approved (61-37) an $838 billion economic recovery package that reflects much of what President Obama sought in legislation to get the nation’s economy moving again. But it eliminates more than $40 billion in aid to fiscally strapped states and other job-creating provisions that are part of the House-passed version of the bill.
The Senate bill is somewhat of a compromise to win the votes of three moderate Republicans—Arlen Specter (Penn.), Susan Collins (Maine) and Olympia Snowe (Maine)—and prevent a filibuster by Republican leaders. The filibuster threat was turned back last night.
The bill now goes to a House-Senate conference, where House leaders say they will attempt to focus on restoring the jobs provisions, while maintaining 61-vote filibuster-proof support in the Senate.
