Labor & Employment Law

Trumka: Health Care Reform Must Include Public Option, No Benefits Tax

By James Parks

With congressional leaders working to bring a combined health care reform bill to the floor soon, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka is optimistic today that a final real reform package will include a robust public option, require employers to pay their fair share and not place an unfair excise tax on working families.

In a telephone press conference this morning, Trumka said:

We cannot be in favor of reform for reform’s sake?this is the moment to make sure it is real, that it will relieve the daily stress of Americans in paying for health care, that it will truly break the stranglehold of the insurance companies. This is the moment of truth. We have to be sure reform is real, and we have to be honest about that. The fight now is about what reform will look like.

Trumka credited the hard work of union members and other grassroots organizations for getting the public option back on the table. Now Congress needs to hear the voices of the people who wrote hundreds of thousands of letters and made tens of thousands of calls to their representatives, Trumka said, by passing a bill that:

• Includes a public option that helps lower premiums and keeps insurance companies honest by guaranteeing competition.
• Requires employers to pay their fair share by providing health coverage or contributing to help pay for subsidies. 
• Ensures that working families who are already struggling to pay for health care are not asked to pay even more for the health care they currently have in the form of a new tax. 

Trumka said union members will hold a major national action Nov. 5 at worksites across the country and ask workers to call their members of Congress in support of reform.

We hope to flood the halls of Congress with calls from working families who want to see real health care reform.

In response to questions, Trumka said all signs point to a public option being included in the bill. Citing a Washington Post poll showing that 57 percent of Americans back a public option, he added that he was confident members of Congress will listen to their constituents.

The goal of working families, he said, is a bill that covers as many as possible and lower costs, and currently the House version of the bill is far better on those issues.

What gives me optimism is that the American public really senses that health care is possible. They want health care, and they’re demanding that it be real health care.

Full post as published by AFL-CIO NOW BLOG on October 26, 2009 (boomark / email).