SEIU Members Launch Unprecedented Effort for Quality, Affordable Health Care for All

Washington, DC - SEIU, the largest union of health care workers in North America, announced today that it is launching a sweeping new election-year effort to win quality, affordable health care for every man, woman and child in America.

The campaign will combine an aggressive paid and earned media strategy with an unprecedented grassroots effort to elect a new President and Congress committed to fixing health care - and then tap into that same energy to ensure those newly elected leaders immediately pass comprehensive legislation that makes quality health care affordable for everyone.

"A victory in the voting booth only matters if it translates into real help for the millions of American families who are struggling to make ends meet,"said SEIU Secretary-Treasurer Anna Burger.  "So, our members will be working around the country to elect a new President on November 4th with the mandate to fix our broken health care system.  And on November 5th, we will hit the ground running to make that mandate a reality."

As part of a $75 million political program in which thousands of SEIU members will take time off of their jobs, SEIU will deploy the following tools to make health care the central issue in the election and to help elect a president committed to real solutions:

  Paid Advertising in targeted markets will draw sharp distinctions between the Republican and Democratic presidential nominees' approach to health care, and what those differences will mean to working families.

  Beginning in March, "The Road to Health Care,"a nationwide tour, will travel through battleground states on its way to the Democratic and Republican National Conventions, stopping in communities small and large to highlight real people who are struggling to afford health care.

  SEIU's one million health care workers, who are on the front lines of the health care crisis, will draw upon their unique understanding of the issue to demand real solutions. 

  Organizers will collect thousands of health care stories, giving voice to the millions of people with and without coverage who are finding it impossible to keep up with rising health care costs.

  SEIU's Americans for Health Care project, which has already played a key role in passing health care legislation in states like Maine, Maryland, and Massachusetts, will continue to recruit and mobilize hundreds of thousands of "Health Care Voters"who pledge to only support candidates who make health care a top priority.

In addition to this sweeping electoral effort, SEIU will continue to partner with consumer groups, activist organizations, and leaders from the business community in issue-based coalitions working to press for real solutions to the health care crisis.

SEIU has been a dominant force in making health care a central issue in American politics, and SEIU members have established the issue as their most important criterion in evaluating political candidates.  In 2007, SEIU released its "Vision for Reform," ten fundamental principles to guide SEIU's work to overhaul the nation's health care system - and then required that any presidential candidate seeking SEIU's support must have a detailed, comprehensive health care plan that meets those principles.  All of the major Democratic presidential candidates have met that challenge, unlike their Republican counterparts - an essential difference that SEIU members will highlight as they work to elect the next president.

"Americans want change, and it's time make the dream of affordable health care a reality for everyone in this country,"said Burger.  "SEIU members are ready to seize this moment, and help build a new American health care system for all working families."