The unions such as the AFL-CIO and AFSCME, are ready to go to the mattress for us to defend the inclusion of the public option in health care reform. They stormed the halls of Congress last week, pressuring Senators and Representatives to keep the public option in any health care reform bill.
And to that, I say, THANK GOD FOR THE UNIONS!
Here's more behind the jump, including what Members of Congress said to these union members behind closed doors:
A major thing labor wants to see included in any final plan is a public option to enable coverage of all the uninsured.
One of the lawmakers who has been feeling the heat is Max Baucus (D-Mont.), chair of the Senate Finance Committee. A delegation of workers who belong to the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees in Montana descended on his office in the nation’s capital May 14. They reminded him that the AFL-CIO in Montana had endorsed single-payer health insurance a year ago and that there had been strong support for the concept at town hall meetings called by the senator himself in Montana.
The lobbyists were part of a crowd of 700 AFSCME delegates who covered Capitol Hill to lobby lawmakers on health care, the Employee Free Choice Act and to demand that more money be invested in programs that benefit workers and their families.
When Ken Allen, the union’s Oregon state chair, came out of a meeting with Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) he told a gathering of fellow union members outside that the senator “wants to force everyone to buy health insurance and has no public section of his health care bill to cover the uninsured. We pushed him very hard on a public plan and he wants to tax our health benefits.” The union members booed. Allen promised that unions in Oregon “will put the whoop on” Wyden to shift his positions.
And more of these union members will be visiting Senators and Representatives to keep on the pressure on them to include a strong, robust Medicare-like public option in health care reform. Next week, the construction unions will be visiting, and then in July, it'll be the Communication Workers of America. They're just not fighting for the Employee Free Choice Act, they're also fighting for the public option in health care reform against both Republicans AND Democrats.
Also, a brief scan of the congressional morning news on the Hill shows that the Republicans are still opposed to the public option in health care reform. What a surprise.
But (Rep.) Boustany, a physician, noted that Republicans differ with Democrats on whether the federal government should develop a public healthcare option to compete with private insurers.
"From my former practice, I know allowing the government to replace the health coverage that more than 100 million Americans currently have through their jobs could have devastating consequences," Boustany said. "A government takeover of healthcare will put bureaucrats in charge of healthcare decisions that should be made by families and doctors."
Like private insurance companies already don't make life-and-death situations on health care decisions that should be made by families and doctors? Give me a break.
"Slowly but surely the government plan would take over the market," Grassley said on Thursday. "Eventually, all the promises about creating a level playing field have been broken, and we would be left with a single-payer, government-run health insurance program."
Uh, that's the point about a Medicare-like public option, Senator Grassley. An actual health care program that puts people's lives over profits? Now that is scary. I can see why Republicans are so afraid of that.
And it's not just the Republicans we have to fight against, it's the Blue Dogs and the New Democratic Coalition (the DLC) that we have to fight against because they also oppose the inclusion of a strong, robust Medicare-like public option in health care reform.
On Monday, the fight is going to be on for a strong, robust Medicare-like public option in health care reform! I'm looking forward to that fight and I hope you are too as well.
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