Clinton will protect nation’s landmark health care reform

By Mary Kay Henry and Randi Weingarten

Saturday, Feb. 13, 2016 | 2 a.m.

For generations, America had a not-so-secret shame: Despite living in the wealthiest nation on Earth, some 45 million of our people had no health insurance. Lots of hard work went into changing that and led to President Barack Obama signing the Affordable Care Act in 2010. The ACA is by no means a perfect law, but it expanded insurance to tens of millions of people, put women’s health on equal footing with men’s and ensured no one would be denied coverage because they were already sick, to name just a few benefits.

It wasn’t an easy law to pass. Five congressional committees held dozens of meetings and considered hundreds of amendments. Members of Congress heard from their constituents at town hall meetings. The Tea Party entered the national consciousness as something besides a revolution in Boston. Eventually the House of Representatives passed health care reform (twice), the Senate passed it and the president signed it. Then the Supreme Court upheld the law, in two separate cases. The law has been debated in the public square and scrutinized by every branch of government. It is the law of the land.

Passing the ACA was a landmark victory. We should embrace it and be proud of it. And we should now be turning our focus to the crucially important issues families grapple with day in and day out: finding a good job that pays a decent wage, getting their kids a high-quality public education and ensuring safe neighborhoods.

That does not mean our work on health care is done. We need to preserve the life-saving Affordable Care Act and work to improve it. That is exactly what Hillary Clinton has proposed to do. She has already outlined several plans including expanding affordable coverage, lowering co-pays, deductibles and costs you pay out of pocket; reigning in ultra-expensive prescription-drug costs for seniors; repealing the so-called Cadillac Tax; and slowing the growth of overall health care costs.

That’s why more than 400 Service Employees International Union and American Federation of Teachers members knocked on doors in Iowa and even more plan to knock in Nevada. In Nevada, 73,596 people are now covered under the ACA, and we know Clinton will fight to keep those people covered.

None of this is new for Clinton. She has fought to make health care more accessible since her time as first lady of Arkansas, when she obtained federal funding to expand medical services in the poorest parts of the state. In the ’90s she worked her heart out to pass comprehensive health care reform — and will be the first to tell you she still has the scars to show from it.

When health care reform was defeated in 1994, Hillary didn’t give up. She worked with Ted Kennedy, a liberal from Massachusetts, and Orrin Hatch, a conservative from Utah, to pass the State Children’s Health Insurance Program. That means every year about 8 million low-income children and pregnant women can get health care during those crucial early stages of development.

This is one of the reasons we support Clinton and have committed to turn out to vote for her. She is passionate about fighting to get families what they need and will work across party lines to make sure it gets done. That is a hard combination to find in a president. But it is a combination we need today more than ever, when our elected officials seem to spend more time launching verbal bombs than improving the lives of their constituents.

When Democrats go to caucus or vote in their primary, there will be a lot at stake. That’s not a political cliché; it’s the truth. We have the chance to elect somebody who has been tested time and again, and has a proven record of success. Hillary Clinton is the right person to build and improve on the solid groundwork laid by the Affordable Care Act.

Union members knocked on doors in Iowa because Hillary Clinton is the candidate with a plan to protect hard-working Americans, and we know she can get it done. She has the proven record we trust, and that’s why we turned out to make her the front-runner in Iowa. Iowa was just the beginning; Nevada is coming, and union households are ready to have their voices heard. We are ready to protect our rights and access to affordable health care.

Mary Kay Henry is international president of the Service Employees International Union. Randi Weingarten is president of the American Federation of Teachers.