Statement by Lorena Gonzalez on Passage of Health Care Reform

Statement by Labor Council Secretary-Treasurer/CEO Lorena Gonzalez on Passage of Health Care Reform

SAN DIEGO – (Sunday, March 21, 2010) – Lorena Gonzalez, the Secretary-Treasurer/CEO of the San Diego and Imperial Counties Labor Council, AFL-CIO, made the following statement following the House of Representatives’ passage of a health care reform bill this evening:

"For the past year, the men and women of San Diego’s Labor Movement joined millions of Americans in calling on the President and Congress to reform our nation’s broken health care system. We told Washington we wanted a system that put people before Health Insurance companies by making healthcare accessible and affordable for everyone by lowering costs and expanding coverage.

"We live in a county where a half-million people have no medical coverage. With the passage of health care reform tonight, we know that thousands and thousands of San Diegans are on the pathway to obtaining the health care they and their families need.

"This bill means long-term health security – and that’s the most important thing for our future, and our children and our children’s children.

"Over the past year, we have brought this issue to the attention of our San Diego’s elected leaders and community members. San Diego’s union members made thousands of phone calls to our local Members of Congress, wrote thousands of letters, held public rallies, and talked to our neighbors about the need for lasting health care reform. Across the country, union members generated 4 million phone calls to Capitol Hill to press lawmakers to pass the bill.

"Just like the creation of Social Security, Medicare or public education, the efforts by the Labor Movement to improve the lives of all workers, union and non-union, will not go unmentioned in the course of history.

"But we also know this win for San Diego’s Middle Class doesn’t happen without the courage of leaders like President Obama, Senators Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein, Congressman Bob Filner, Congresswoman Susan Davis and other elected officials who weren’t willing to accept the cost of doing nothing any longer.

"The San Diego and Imperial Counties Labor Council applauds President Obama and Congress for making a real change to the lives of San Diegans and the local union members who mobilized to make health care reform a reality."

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