Richard Trumka, president of the AFL-CIO, issued the following statement on the health care reform summit:
Today President Obama brought Democrats and Republicans together to work on a final health care proposal. It has been 13 months since we began debating health care, and the process has been painstaking and tough. But comprehensive reform is now more urgent than ever–you need look no further than the unconscionable price increases being pushed onto consumers from insurance companies, such as the 39 percent increase recently levied by Anthem Blue Cross in California.
Republicans showed once again today that they have no intention of working to solve the health care crisis. They have turned their backs on people who need health care as well as those who are struggling to afford the high cost of health care. Instead of offering solutions, they have offered obstruction and political posturing.
The reforms on the table from the president are not perfect. They do not add up to the bill we would have written. We will keep working with the Congress to improve them until health care reform is signed into law–and afterwards. But we are within sight of real health care reform that will bring down out of control health costs, begin to hold insurance companies accountable, and help ensure that no one in America goes without the health care he or she needs. This can be a great achievement for America’s working families, and we are proud that our strong grassroots work has strengthened the proposals in important ways and brought us closer than ever to enacting comprehensive reform.
It is inexcusable that the insurance and drug companies, who have made billions in profits off the backs of working families, are fighting these common sense reforms.
America’s working people are waiting. It is time to make health care reform law.
