Before the call, Andy Stern wrote an open letter on the current healthcare bill in the Senate to the 2.2 million members of SEIU-affiliated unions across the country. He pointed out some of the good things in the legislation, like:
 

• The 30 million more people who will have healthcare they can count on;
• The people who will no longer lose their coverage if they get sick;
• All of us who no longer have to worry about being denied coverage because of pre-existing conditions; and
• Women who will no longer be discriminated against just because of their gender.

But he also acknowledged some serious problems, including:
 

• For many people, care will still be too expensive to afford;
• Some of our members would face an additional burden because health insurance benefits would be taxed; and
• The best way possible to hold insurance companies accountable was no longer an option.

The reality is that healthcare reform bill in the Senate has been watered down and distorted. Some blame Joe Lieberman, Connecticut's junior senator.

Regardless of who is responsible, the public option that would compete with private insurance plans to keep insurance companies honest and hold down costs has been stripped from the bill.

In its place was a proposal to allow people to buy-in to Medicare starting at the age of fifty-five, a move which would have expanded access to quality health insurance. It, too, was eliminated.

With all the changes to the Senate health care bill, one thing has remained constant: a tax on decent healthcare. In the current version, it applies to plans with a value exceeding $8,500.00 for individuals and $23,000.00 for families.

Though an excise tax would be charged to insurance companies, it is widely assumed they would pass it on to employers. And we know from many years of negotiating insurance costs at the bargaining table that these costs could be passed on to our members.

There is a right way and a wrong way to do reform and a tax on health benefits is definitely the wrong way. Debbie is the President of Chapter I83, which represents the Town of Simsbury's clerical, administrative, and library employees, and she expressed concerns shared by the members who elected her to represent them on issues like this for the press on Thursday's call:

"We are not high-paid executives from Greenwich. And somehow or other in Washington they've determined our healthcare plan is a Cadillac plan."

Our Union's members have made sacrifices on wages in contract negotiations to protect and improve healthcare benefits. To now penalize us because we have quality health care plans is immoral. It is bad policy, bad politics and something we will not support.