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Support for the HR 3200 - America's Affordable Health Choices Act »

Key Conclusions from the EPI report

• “It is highly unlikely that a health care reform package including a play-or-pay policy will lead to job losses. On the contrary, such policy reform is likely to cause significant boost to employment.”
• “In short: concerns over job losses from comprehensive health care reform proposals that include play-or-pay employer contribution are overstated and unfounded.” 
• “Moreover, it is likely that the positive effects on employment from health care reform will surpass by several orders of magnitude any modest job losses caused by a play-or-pay policy considered in isolation, providing a substantial boost for the U.S. economy and U.S. workers.”
  

What about other studies that show significant job losses associated with play-or-pay?

• “Prior studies instead modeled a requirement that all employers provide private health insurance to their employees. With average costs of compliance of 40% of payroll or more for employers facing such a requirement, it is not surprising that those prior studies found much larger effects on employment that would be expected from a play-or-pay policy with a cost of compliance of just 4-8% of payroll.”

More information on the Tri-Committee discussion draft.

We’ve met with our respective Democratic and Republican committee members, with our Senate colleagues, with the CBO, and with administration officials in an open and collaborative process.

To further this open and collaborative process, our three committees will hold hearings on this draft starting next week.

After the July Fourth district work period, our committees will then work to make refinements to the draft, vote on it, and send a bill to the House floor.

This is truly exciting news.

The House decided to use this unified approach because we recognized that our ability to succeed at health care reform rests in our ability to work together.

We know that inside-the-beltway turf battles will not advance reforms.

We believe that in order to change America’s health care system, Congress itself must change.  

When the voters elected Barack Obama President, they did not only send a message that the White House must change.

They sent an equally strong message to the Congress that we must work together for the common good of our nation.

They told us that we will not be rewarded for standing on the sidelines or for raising every conceivable argument against taking action.  

Americans will judge us, and rightly so, by our willingness and our determination to cooperate and focus on the ultimate and necessary goal of reforming our health care system so that it works not just for the few but for everyone in our country.

That is why the approach that the three of us have taken in this process is one of the key factors that makes this year the year that we will finally fix our broken health care system.    

The current path is unsustainable. No one disagrees with that.

Health care premiums have spiraled out of control – dealing a crushing blow to families and businesses alike and placing our fiscal future in peril. Rising costs are unsustainable.

President Obama is absolutely correct when he says that health care reform is essential to the health of our nation and the strength of our economy.  

In fact, health care reform is the single greatest tool to reduce runaway budget deficits.  

Our discussion draft is the first step in building a truly American solution that will reduce costs, offer real choice, and guarantee affordable, quality health care for all.

It will build a health care system that emphasizes keeping Americans healthy, not waiting until they become sick to get treated.

In the coming weeks, our committees will continue to seek input from all the stakeholders, the American people, and all members of Congress.

But let me say again that we must and we will continue to move forward.  If there is one thing that is ‘off of the table’ it is saying ‘no’ to health care reform.  

There is not one child, not one worker, not one employer, nor one taxpayer who can further bear the cost of doing nothing.  

I am confident that we have the ability to respond to their needs.

I’d like to thank Speaker Pelosi, Majority Leader Hoyer, the rest of our Democratic Leadership, and all of our Caucus for giving us the support and input we’ve needed to develop this uniquely American solution for finally bringing quality, affordable health care to our country.

Support for the House Tri-Committee Health Reform Discussion Draft

• AARP »
  
• Health Care for America Now »
• Small Business Majority »
• U.S. PIRG »
  

WHAT:          
Hearing on “H.R. 2339, the Family Income to Respond to Significant
Transitions Act, and H.R. 2460, the Healthy Families Act”

WHO:           
U.S. Representative Rosa DeLauro (D-CT), sponsor H.R. 2460,
Healthy Families Act
Rajiv Bhatia, director, Occupational and Environmental Health, Department of Public Health, San Francisco, CA
Deborah Frett, CEO, BPW Foundation, Washington, DC
Debra Ness, president, National Partnership for Women, Washington, DC
Sandra Poole, deputy director, California Employment Development Department Disability Insurance Branch
Additional Witnesses TBA
                                                             
WHEN:         
Thursday, June 11, 2009
10:00 a.m., EDT
Please check the Committee schedule for potential updates »
                       
WHERE:       
House Education and Labor Committee Hearing Room
2175 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, D.C.

Note: This hearing will be webcast live from the Education and Labor Committee website. Access the webcast when the hearing begins at 10:00 am EDT » 

Hear Chairman Miller talk about the importance of being prepared for a pandemic flu virus at work and school on the Ed show.

MAKING COLLEGE MORE AFFORDABLE

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (signed February 17) will provide immediate relief to students and families working hard to pay for college by:

• Increasing the Pell Grant scholarship by $500. The bill increases the maximum award to $5,350 by next school year and to $5,550 for 2010. About seven million students would benefit from this increase.
• Establishing a new college tuition tax credit of $2,500. The bill establishes a new, partially refundable “American Opportunity” tax credit, expanding access for higher education tax credit to about four million students. 
• Creating new work-study opportunities for college students. The bill invests $200 million in work-study opportunities for college students in fields related to their major or in community service, creating jobs for an additional 200,000 students.
  

The President’s budget blueprint (released February 26) proposes historic increases to the Pell Grant scholarship and other grant aid for students at no additional cost to taxpayers by using federal funds to originate all new federal college loans beginning in the 2010 school year. This would insulate the federal student loan programs from any future instability in the economy and ensure that the Pell Grant keeps pace with rising costs. The Congressional Budget Office estimates this proposal will save taxpayers almost $100 billion over ten years.

RESTORING PROTECTIONS FOR WORKERS

The Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act (signed January 29) restores workers’ rights to challenge pay discrimination.

Overturned harmful Bush midnight rule that would have slowed protections for workers from severe lung disease (withdrawn March 17). Under the leadership of the new Administration, OSHA withdrew a last minute Bush era procedural roadblock to that slowed protections for workers who handle the dangerous food flavoring diacetyl. Scientists have linked diacetyl exposure to bronchiolitis obliterans, a severe lung disease often known as “popcorn lung.”

Issued executive orders to restore workers’ rights in federal contracts and establish a Middle Class Task Force (signed January 30, 2009).

LAUNCHING A NEW ERA OF PUBLIC SERVICE

The Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act (signed April 21) expands opportunities for Americans of all ages to serve their nation and communities. It more than triples them number of service opportunities nationwide to 250,000 and increases the full time education award service members receive in exchange for their work to $5,350 for 2010.

EXPANDING AFFORDABLE HEALTH CARE

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act helps workers who recently lost a job maintain their health coverage while they look for new employment by making them eligible to receive a 65 percent subsidy towards their COBRA premium for up to nine months.

INVESTING IN 21ST CENTURY EDUCATION

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act invests $105.9 billion in early education, k-12 education, and training to help build the world class education system our economy needs and our children deserve. This plan will make sure that the economic crisis doesn’t compromise the quality of education schoolchildren receive. It also makes progress on key, commonsense reforms, like improving teacher quality, strengthening standards, and establishing data systems that track students’ progress, that are needed to transform our schools.

Each year, about 6,000 workers are killed on the job and thousands more are severely injured; it is estimated that on a daily basis 15 workers are killed and nearly 11,000 workers are injured or made ill.  

Criminal penalties are only available if a worker dies; serious injury is not subject to criminal prosecution.  When a tragedy does occur and a worker is killed on the job, the highest criminal penalty available is a misdemeanor with a maximum sentence of just six months.  When a worker dies because of a knowing violation of the worker safety laws, the maximum sentence should be measured in years, not months.  Anything less sends the wrong message about the value of a worker’s life.

And with only weak criminal penalties available to OSHA, too often profit is put ahead of compliance as penalties are seen as a “cost of doing business.”  This is not an acceptable cost.

No worker should leave home unsure if his or her workplace is safe, and no family should have to worry if they will see their loved one again as they send him or her off to work.   Sadly, this happens to 15 families every single day.   But I am hopeful that hearings such as the one held today can prevent such devastating losses.

Today, my heart goes out to all of the workers who have been injured on the job and to their family members.  Particularly in my mind today are the families in Nevada.   In 2008, OSHA conducted 26 fatality investigations in Nevada.  I will continue to press for legislative improvements that will prevent injuries or fatalities.  I also would like to recognize the Las Vegas Sun for its work in publicizing and investigating the deaths of workers on the Las Vegas Strip.  Alexandra Berzon, along with editorial writers Matt Hufman and David Clayton, recently won a Pulitzer Prize for Public Service for their investigative reporting, which opened the door to expose the dangers workers faced on the job when safety was sacrificed for speed and profit.  

On Workers Memorial Day, let us remember those workers who died or were injured on the job, and recommit to diligently trying to improve worker safety by strengthening OSHA penalties and enforcement in order to prevent future tragedies. 

When the Equal Pay Act was signed into law, women working full-time and year-round earned an average of 59 cents for every dollar earned by men.  In 2007, women made 78 cents for every dollar earned by men. Today, the wage gap has only narrowed by less than half a cent per year.

The impact of income disparity is communal.  Equal pay is not just a women’s issue, it’s a family issue.  The current wage gap hurts everyone.  It lowers family income for essentials such as groceries, doctors’ visits, and child care.  When women earn more, families benefit.  Closing the wage gap is an integral part of strengthening American families and providing hope for a better future.

On January 29, 2009, President Obama took the first step by signing the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act into law to restore employee rights to challenge unlawful pay discrimination.  

The Paycheck Fairness Act, passed by the House on January 9, 2009, would take further steps to ensure that gender-based pay discrimination does not occur in the first place by closing the loopholes that have allowed employers to avoid responsibility for discriminatory pay.  A comprehensive update to the 46-year-old Equal Pay Act, the Paycheck Fairness Act puts gender-based discrimination sanctions on equal footing with other forms of wage discrimination, such as race, disability or age. It creates a new grant program to help strengthen the negotiation skills of girls and women.  And it creates strong incentives for employers to equally compensate workers while strengthening correlating federal enforcement efforts.

I stand in support of equal pay for all.  I look forward to the day when equal pay is a firm reality and not a tenuous goal.