Dayton Miami Valley AFL-CIO

	Union members have been leading the fight for health care reform.

The next two weeks will be a pivotal time in the nation’s history as the U.S. Senate debates health care reform.

Health care reform will help control costs to families, lowering out-of-pocket costs for most people buying insurance, according to a new Congressional Budget Office (CBO) report. But there’s still a long way to go to make the Senate’s bill into the kind of reform our country needs, and union members are taking the lead in that fight.

This week and next, union members, unemployed workers, faith leaders and community allies of health care reform will join together for roundtable discussions in key states like Indiana, Nebraska and Louisiana. They’ll share real-life stories about their experiences with the nation’s broken health care system and what we need to do to fix it.

Union leaders from around the country also will be coming to Washington, D.C., next week to visit members of Congress and emphasize the message that hundreds of thousands of union members and allies have delivered letters and made phone calls all year: We need health care reform that works for working families.

You can contact your senators here to let them know you demand health care reform that doesn’t tax our benefits, that makes sure employers participate responsibly and that includes a public option to hold insurance companies accountable.

Here’s more news from the fight for health care reform:

• Jonathan Cohn of The New Republic points out some weaknesses of the Senate, especially compared with the stronger, more effective bill the House passed.
• Art Levine, writing at In These Times, has a great article about the upcoming health care fight—the players, the dangers and the opportunities to improve the bill.
• At Health Affairs, Tim Jost takes a look at what’s in the Senate’s bill.
• Yet another reason we need health care reform: The nation’s ongoing jobs crisis has left millions at risk of losing coverage.
• Matt Browner Hamlin looks at how opponents of health care reform will try to use amendments not to improve the bill, but kill it.
• Opponents of health care reform rejected an effort to put amendments online for the public.

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