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Healthcare Reform Talking Points

We Will Fight for Real and Meaningful Reform

Last year, SEIU members rose to President Obama’s ‘Yes We Can’ challenge to our nation and have continued to knock on doors, make phone calls and write letters to not leave change to chance.
 
·        Health insurance reform has been debated for nearly a century, and each time politics, special interests, and scare tactics have blocked progress.
 
·        The health insurance reform effort our country needs, and SEIU members voted for, is at risk. Because of Senators saying “we can’t” the public option is declared impossible and Americans cannot purchase Medicare at an earlier age.
 
·        Town Hall-style telephone conferences held last week with 200,000 SEIU members and an emergency meeting of our International Executive Board held Wednesday night made it clear: We stand 2.2 million strong and ready to fight.
 
·        Already, reform is meaningful because 30 million more people will have healthcare they can count on and Americans will no longer be discriminated against or denied care because of gender or pre-existing conditions. But we must do more.
 
·        With the health and well-being of our economy, our families, and our future at state, we must fight for real reform that:
 
  • Ends insurance company discrimination and denials;
  • Makes healthcare affordable;
  • Requires employers to provide coverage to their workers;
  • Will not place an additional burden on workers by taxing high-quality health insurance benefits.
 
·        We challenge all SEIU members, the President, the Senate, and the House of Representatives to remember why we engaged in this monumental effort in the first place and fight to deliver real and meaningful reform for the American people.