Bush Health-Care Proposal

For Immediate Release: January 24, 2007

Contact: Gary Hubbard, 202-778-4384; 202-256-8125

USW Rejects Bush Health-Care Proposal

Tax scheme fails to expand coverage for all, erodes employer plans

Pittsburgh (Jan. 23) – Leo W. Gerard, President of the United Steelworkers (USW), said American workers know a raw deal when they hear one and tonight’s State of the Union proposal by President Bush of a so-called standard tax deduction for health insurance doesn’t set any benchmarks for covering the uninsured while “sticking it to workers who have employer health care coverage.”

“Congress should reject this plan out of hand,” Gerard said. “It not only erodes employer coverage, where two out of three Americans now receive their health benefits, it’s a back-door attempt to saddle union workers with a tax for the health care benefits they negotiate through collective bargaining.”

“This proposal makes it more apparent than ever,” Gerard added, “that the Bush Administration doesn’t have a clue about how to address the needs of middle class and working Americans, who are being hammered by health care costs running totally out of control.”

The USW president said Americans are ready for big ideas to the health-care crisis, yet this Administration seems “obsessed with policies that widen the growing gap between the wealthy and the great majority of working Americans.”

The USW is a North American union representing 850,000 workers employed in metals, mining, paper, rubber, utilities and chemical industries, plus the health-care and business service sector.