Statement by AFL-CIO President John Sweeney on Senate Finance Health Care Proposal

September 16, 2009 -- Despite months of painful negotiations, the Senate Finance Committee proposal released today absolutely fails to meet the most basic health care needs of working families and it fails to meet the expectations we have set for our nation.

It fails to put pressure on private insurers to control health care costs. There is no history or logic behind the claim that health care co-ops would provide real competition for the giant private insurers that have a stranglehold on health coverage today.

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If you're an individual who does not purchase private health coverage, it sticks you with a hefty tax penalty even though it fails to provide sufficient subsidies to make plans affordable for low and moderate income families. But if you're an irresponsible employer who does not provide coverage, you get off scot free.

Outrageously, the plan imposes a 35 percent tax on high-cost health care plans without prohibiting insurers from passing on the tax to consumers who happen to be in groups that are older or sicker than average or live in high cost areas.

The Senate Finance proposal, sadly, is little more than a throwback to the failed policies of the last three decades that advantaged corporations over taxpayers and bestowed special breaks on the wealthy while ignoring the middle class.

The proposal does include the important insurance reform and health care delivery system improvements adopted by earlier congressional committees, and it builds on these by reforming the way we pay for health services to focus on the quality of services instead of the quantity. But the proposal's strong points are nowhere near sufficient to outweigh its problems. However well intentioned the attempts at bipartisanship, the final product reflects the bankrupt policies of the past more than the forward-looking policies needed to drive meaningful health care reform.

We are counting on finance committee Democrats to fix the bill and side with working families, not insurance companies.

Source: AFL-CIO