SEIU: House Bill Is (Mostly) Better

The Service Employees International Union sent a letter to President Obama and Congress today urging for the best (in their opinion) parts of the House and Senate bills to be included in a final package--but mostly provisions from the House version.

The letter is signed by over 750 national, regional, state, and local organizations. Notably, it does not include an explicit request or demand that the House's public-option provision be included in the final package; instead, the signatories are concerned with affordability and lowering out-of-pocket costs, which both bills do through government assistance in paying for premiums, and which the House bill aims to do with the public option as well.


Here's the letter:

Dear President Obama and Members of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives:

The United States is closer than ever before to making quality affordable health care available to all families.

Yet, health care reform can only succeed if it makes coverage truly affordable for ordinary families who are finding it more and more difficult to get the care they need. Requiring people to purchase health insurance that costs too much and covers too little would frustrate the fundamental goals of health reform and undermine the public support needed to pass and sustain reform.

The House of Representatives has passed health reform legislation that would cover 36 million people, 96 percent of all legal residents. The House covers five million more people than the Senate. We urge you to support the coverage provisions in the House bill, so that millions of Americans are not left uninsured after the passage of comprehensive health reform.

On the critical question of making coverage affordable, the House legislation sets premiums and out-of-pocket costs at levels that are likely to be affordable to lower-income working families. The House does a much better job in protecting lower-income people. The Senate approach provides somewhat better protections for middle-income workers, but would require lower-wage workers to buy insurance that costs many thousands of dollars more than the House legislation. We urge you to take the best elements of both approaches to create legislation that would protect all families from costs they cannot afford.

The undersigned are not collectively endorsing or supporting every element of either the House or Senate legislation, but we are unified in believing that (1) the House does a far better job at extending coverage to many more people; (2) that the House sets premium and out-of-pocket costs for lower-income workers at levels that are essential to the success of health reform; and (3) the Senate protections for middle-income families should be included in the final bill.

Therefore, we strongly urge President Obama and Members of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives to take the best elements of both bills in crafting final legislation that works for all families.

Sincerely,
[follow this link to see the list of signatories]