Labor Council Applauds Senate’s Start to Health Care Bill Debate

Vote on Saturday Clears Important Hurdle for Reform

SAN DIEGO – (November 22, 2009) – The San Diego and Imperial Counties Labor Council applauds last night’s vote by the U.S. Senate to begin debate on the health care bill and break a Republican filibuster that would have thwarted true reform of America’s health care system.

Senators Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein of California were among the senators who voted to begin debate on legislation that will create quality, affordable health care for the working families of the region. Currently, there are 500,000 people in San Diego County without medical coverage, according to estimates from the U.S. Department of Census.

“Senators Boxer and Feinstein stood up for San Diego’s working families by allowing the progress that has been made toward affordable and accessible health care to continue in Congress,” said Lorena Gonzalez, Secretary-Treasurer and CEO of the San Diego and Imperial Counties Labor Council. “Senators will now have the opportunity to come up with the best health care law for America. They have a ways to go.”

The Senate health care bill, called the Patient Protection and Affordable Health Care Act, includes strong cost cutting measures go further than any previous legislation. However, the Labor Council urges improvement that must be made to the bill in important areas.

• The employer responsibility provision should be expanded to cover all employers.
• Any plan to tax working families’ benefits should be eliminated -- taxes on the middle class are the wrong way to pay for health care.

The San Diego and Imperial Counties Labor Council, AFL-CIO, includes 127 unions representing 189,000 workers in the region. For more information, visit www.unionyes.org.

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