WASHINGTON, DC - SEIU International PresidentAndy Stern issued the following statement today regarding the combinedimpact of the banking crisis and rising health care costs on thenation's working families:

 Thenews today that the banking crisis, foreclosures, and health care costsare colliding in the lives of ordinary Americans comes as no surprise.

 Unfortunately,the real crisis is still to come. This week's financial meltdown israpidly becoming an all out epidemic that is felt most acutely inliving rooms, not in boardrooms. The Kaiser Family Foundation estimatesthe final cost could eclipse the multibillion dollar bailout billfacing taxpayers today, edging closer to $1 trillion.

 NowJohn McCain is proposing to do to the health care system what wasalready done to our financial and housing systems. At a time when theconsequences of inadequate regulation on Wall Street are continuing tounfold, McCain is proposing a health care "plan" that will virtuallyensure the worst of all possible worlds by pushing tens of millions ofmiddle class Americans into the free market for their health care.McCain's proposals would actually encourage businesses to drop theirhealth coverage, leaving working families to fend for themselvesagainst the insurance companies. And for those of us lucky enough tokeep our health coverage, Senator McCain would make us pay taxes onthose benefits.

 That's the McCain Plan:  Less regulation for insurance companies, more costs and more risks for ordinary working families.

 Wecan't let him get away with it. In the next 30 days health care workersand other working families will spread the word to voters about JohnMcCain's disastrous plan, and serve notice to McCain, and drug andinsurance companies who are contributing to skyrocketing health carecosts: we stand with Barack Obama because we know he stands for us.Through SEIU's Healthcare United project, union and non-union healthcare workers in key states will reach out to other health care workerswhile the ordinary Americans currently getting lost in the system--orshut out altogether--will work to elect pro-health care leaders throughSEIU's Americans for Healthcare program.

 It'stime to hold lawmakers, regulators, and Wall Street accountable for thefinancial and health care disaster that is threatening the economicsecurity of millions of American families. The lesson from this week'sdevastating economic news could not be more clear: the longer we wait,the longer we do nothing, the worse it gets.

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