Congress begins work on health care legislation

Meanwhile, unions and community groups plan to rally in Washington, D.C., on June 25, in what they say will be the largest rally ever to call for health care reform. Learn more about the rally.

Sweeney said senators putting together the health care overhaul are following principles the labor movement campaigns for: Providing an alternative to the insurers, letting people choose their own doctors, controlling costs and providing universal, affordable coverage. Democratic President Barack Obama also agrees with those principles and pushes them hard in town meetings, speeches and appearances.

But DeMoro called the Senate bill, unveiled by Senate Health Education and Labor Committee Chairman Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., and Vice Chairman Chris Dodd, D-Conn., “a sham” that wouldn’t work to control costs and provide universal care. She said government-run single-payer health care would do that.

DeMoro said the public is on her side, in town hall meetings and nationwide polls that show majority support for government-run universal health care, eliminating insurers, their high co-pays, deductibles, huge profits, denial of care and resulting deaths of thousands of patients.

DeMoro declared single-payer, by eliminating the insurers’ overhead, duplicative tests, forms and paperwork, advertising, high CEO pay and profit motives, would cut down on the nation’s annual $2.3 trillion health care bill by at least $300 billion.

Sweeney said the “strong draft” bill shows a “commitment to comprehensive reform (that) the country needs to finally win quality, affordable health care for all.” He particularly praised the Senate for giving people both “the freedom to choose to maintain their current insurance or pick a public health care option that will increase competition in the market and lower costs.”

That section has drawn virtually unanimous condemnation from Republicans, the insurance lobby, business groups and the Right Wing. It’s also the object of intensive and expensive corporate and insurance company lobbying and campaign contributions.

DeMoro, joined by Sen. Bernie Sanders, Ind-Vt., said the Senate’s bill is trying to fix “a dysfunctional system.” Sanders has introduced a single-payer bill in the Senate, paralleling HR 676, by veteran Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich.

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

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