Statement of SEIU President Andy Stern

Statement of SEIU President Andy Stern
Re: Health Care for America Proposal

“The Health Care for America plan is a common-sense proposal that offers promising opportunities to guarantee health care for all Americans. With many new ideas emerging on comprehensive health care reform, this proposal presents another viable option that demonstrates the kind of bold thinking and leadership we need in order to find real solutions to the health care crisis.

This proposal acknowledges that employment-based health care is economically inefficient for today’s global economy. It builds upon existing programs that are effective, while guaranteeing affordable coverage for at-risk populations, flexible choices, and premiums that work to eliminate economic and social disparities.

Everyone in America deserves a universal health plan that is cost-efficient and medically effective -- one that promotes quality care and prevention, helps coordinate treatment, and promotes technological innovations to increase effectiveness, and raises overall standards. This plan does that.

Health care is the most pressing economic problem facing working families and businesses today. There are 46 million uninsured people in this country, and by 2008, the average Fortune 500 company will spend as much on health care costs as they make in profi ts. We can¬not compete in a global economy with these kinds of burdens.

It’s time for our nation to break new ground in solving the health care crisis. Employers, individuals, and government must share the responsibility, and work together to fix the broken health system so that every man, woman and child in America has access to quality care they can afford.”

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Andrew L. Stern is President of SEIU (Service Employees International Union), the fastest-growing union in North America and the largest health care union, including hospitals, nursing homes, and home care. Stern has repeatedly called for a fundamental reshaping of the nation’s health care system, recently challenging CEOs of the Fortune 500 to partner with SEIU to develop a new model that solves the health care crisis for American workers and businesses alike. Stern’s commitment to the issue also led him to create SEIU’s Americans for Health Care project, a grassroots network to make health care a top political priority in key states across the country.