Labor & Employment Law

Join Us in Our ?Thanks for Health Care? Rally on Capitol Hill

By Mike Hall

Tomorrow, more than 1,000 union members will deliver a short and sweet message to the U.S. senators and representatives who had the courage to take the side of working families over big insurance companies and vote for health care reform:

Thank You!

The noon Capitol Hill rally, led by the United Steelworkers (USW) with the support of the AFL-CIO, Utility Workers (UWUA) and SEIU, also will combat the lingering lies spread by Big Business Republicans about the landmark health care reform law that extends coverage to an estimated 32 million uninsured Americans.

The message contrasts with the often vicious and angry rhetoric characterizing the other side of the health care debate.

Speakers are expected to include AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka, USW President Leo W. Gerard, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) and workers and retirees.

The rally gets under way at noon at the Longworth Fountain Plaza at the intersection of C Street and New Jersey Avenue, S.W. If you’re in Washington, D.C., tomorrow, join us as we tell Congress “Thank you” for passing health care reform that:

• Ends insurance companies’ most abusive practices, including denying coverage to people with pre-existing conditions, beginning in 2014 for adults and this September for children. The insurance industry already tried to weasel out of covering sick kids, but that sleazy maneuver came to a quick end.
• Eliminates annual and lifetime limits on benefits, ends discriminatory premiums for women and requires government review of excessive rate increases.
• Lowers health care costs for working families by creating new health insurance exchanges to increase competition and provides tax credits and cost-sharing assistance for middle- and lower-income families to purchase insurance.
• Helps seniors purchase prescription drugs, closes the Medicare prescription drug “donut hole” and ensures seniors get free preventive care under Medicare.

Click here for more information on the new health care reform law.

Full post as published by AFL-CIO NOW BLOG on May 05, 2010 (boomark / email).