Labor leaders hail passage of health care overhaul

That’s because the Senate will spend this week wrestling with the “fixes” in the legislation, contained in a so-called budget “reconciliation” bill, with votes scheduled for Thursday. And if the Senate makes changes, the bill bounces back to the House again.

One of the key fixes in reconciliation partially answers labor’s biggest problem with the health care bill the House sent to President Obama on a 219-212 vote: Changing the effective date for taxing high-value health insurance plans to 2018. That fix is in reconciliation, not in the health care overhaul itself.

Nevertheless, union leaders were pleased at the House vote.

The bill is “a momentous step toward comprehensive health care reform” and will finally put the U.S. “on the road to quality affordable health care for all,” Trumka said.

He also vowed labor would continue lobbying through the week and beyond for the reconciliation bill, with the fixes. The Obama administration is now planning to roll out its forces – primarily its 13-million-name e-mail list – to help explain the health care overhaul to the country, news reports said.

Change To Win leaders were also enthusiastic, as were top union presidents.

"For the child who was denied coverage because she got too sick, too young – tomorrow is a new day for our country,” said CTW Chair Anna Burger.

Communication Workers of America President Larry Cohen called the bill “an important opportunity to repair America\’s broken health care system.” He thanked lawmakers – all of them Democrats – “who stood up to insurance company interests and voted yes, for real reform.”

Cohen said the overhaul “includes some penalties for employers who for too long have refused to pay their fair share and reassures workers their families won\’t lose health care if they change jobs or are laid off. It stops the worst abuses of insurance companies, like denying care based on pre-existing conditions, setting lifetime limits for coverage and dropping coverage when people need it most.

“After decades of working for quality health care for all, this bill moves us forward and provides a framework for future improvements,” Cohen concluded.

Teamsters President James Hoffa agreed. “For decades, including a passionate campaign conducted over the past three years, Change to Win members have educated and mobilized their co-workers and neighbors, marched in our towns and nation’s capital, and lobbied vigorously in every region of the nation, calling for many of the reforms passed tonight by the Congress. This vote is a victory for grassroots politics that honors the dignity and well-being of all Americans above the profits of our powerful insurance companies," he said.

Trumka estimated union members made 4 million phone calls on the issue in the last year, while their leaders paid 10,000 individual visits to lawmakers. Working America, the community affiliate of the AFL-CIO, talked to more than 210,000 people, generated 30,000 signatures for health care petitions, 31,000 phone calls to Congress, 40,000 e-mails and 75,000 letters.

Mark Gruenberg writes for Press Associates, Inc., news service. Used by permission.

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