As the battle for health care reform nears the finish line in Congress, members of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers attending the union’s annual political and legislative conference in Washington, D.C. last month wanted to make sure their political representatives heard their message on health care reform loud and clear: we need a strong public option and reform can’t be done by squeezing our hard-won existing benefits.
We need to help stiffen the spines of our friends in Congress ... They need to keep a public option alive, bring competition to the health care insurance market and have the backs of working Americans.
On Saturday, the House of Representatives passed a historic health care reform bill that includes a robust public option that can compete with private insurers and additional coverage for millions currently without insurance – all without a tax on union health care plans. Now the fight goes to the Senate. Commenting on the proposal by some senators to help fund health care reform by taxing the existing benefits of working families, Hill called it a “crazy idea.”
This is beyond stupid. Maybe the men in stretch Mercedes limousines can afford to pay taxes on their health care insurance. But for working men and women on so-called Cadillac health insurance, this isn’t reform. We paid for those plans with our deferred wages.
For Troy Warner, business and membership development representative for South Bend, Ind., Local 153, one of the top concerns for his members is rising medical costs, which are putting a squeeze on their wallets. Says Warner:
The costs have gone up tremendously … Overall the amount of money we spend as a nation compared to what other nations spend, it’s almost double. We need to bring those costs down.
For Warner, the best way to do this is through a strong government-supported public health insurance plan that could compete with private insurers.
We need a public option to force the insurance companies to be competitive … We’re trying to get the message out to Sen. (Evan) Bayh (D-Ind.) … look at what’s best for working class middle American families and the 46 million without insurance.
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