“Health Care Reform is a Remarkable Achievement”

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.afscme.org/press/27939.cfm

For IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Friday, March 26, 2010
“Health Care Reform is a Remarkable Achievement”

Statement of AFSCME Pres. Gerald W. McEntee on final passage of the health care reconciliation bill

Washington, DC — “AFSCME members fought hard to pass President Obama’s health care reform package. We are grateful to President Obama, Senator Reid and Speaker Pelosi for their leadership and commitment throughout this entire process. Health care reform is a remarkable achievement. This victory will protect and improve good union health care benefits. It stops the worst abuses of the insurance companies. It gives workers and families without coverage on-the-job access to affordable health care. It ends skyrocketing premiums and caps on benefits. It helps seniors by strengthening Medicare and helps preserve employer coverage for early retirees. It provides critical new funding to states.

“But working families need more help from Washington. We still have important work that needs to be done. Too many Americans are struggling to cope in the worst economy since the Great Depression. Millions are out of work. State and local governments are cutting services to the bone. AFSCME is going to continue the fight to create jobs and restore our economy. Working together, we had a great victory on health care reform. Now, let’s put America back to work. Let’s Make America Happen.

“AFSCME spent more than $10 million on the largest mobilization campaign in our history to pass health care reform. More than 300,000 phone calls and letters were sent to Congress. We used texting and new media. We put ads on TV, online and in the papers. We marched, we lobbied and we prevailed.”

AFSCME’s 1.6 million members provide the vital services that make America happen. With members in hundreds of different occupations – from nurses to corrections officers, child care providers to sanitation workers – AFSCME advocates for fairness in the workplace, excellence in public services and prosperity and opportunity for all working families.

[Warpy]

1. Getting any reform passed in the present Congress is amazing

and I keep reading portions of the bill and thinking it's a lot better than I thought we'd do, although it falls far short of what we actually needed as a country.

Some mechanism has to be in place for a gradual transition to a public health insurance program, with insurance companies on the side doing what they do best, providing insurance to close the gaps and prevent financial disaster.

If we can get that, even with the timid first step of offering a Medicare buy in to people 55 and older, the reforms should work for years.

If we don't, look for this to be revisited within 5 years, at most.