SEIU Members Continue Stepped Up Effort to Educate
Voters on Difference Between Obama and McCain Healthcare Plans
Washington,
D.C.--As the presidential
candidates come on stage tonight for the second presidential debate,
Jean Berg, a nursing assistant and member of SEIU Healthcare Florida,
will be in the audience, waiting to ask John McCain why he wants to tax
healthcare benefits and make it harder for families to afford coverage.
Berg
has been a nursing assistant for nearly 28 years and has never had
healthcare.
"It's
the single biggest economic factor in my life," says Berg. "I can't
afford the coverage I need and if I get sick I'm afraid I'll lose
everything."
"I
never voted before because I never thought it mattered," added Berg.
"But John McCain seems to want to make it harder for people like me to
get health care. He wants to take us backwards and I can't afford
another president who puts me on the bottom of their priority list."
Berg
is one of more than 1,000 SEIU members across the country taking time
off to elect Barack Obama and a Congress that will make healthcare a
priority. And another 100,000 nurses, janitors, child care providers,
and other workers are joining her on evenings and weekends to win
on Election Day.
SEIU
members are stepping up their efforts on the air, on the doors, and in
the mail to educate voters on the difference between the Obama and
McCain healthcare plans. On Friday, the Associated Press
reported that while voters prefer Barack Obama's health care plan to
John McCain's, many voters--particularly independents and seniors--do
not have a clear understanding of the differences between the two
proposals. Recently, SEIU members:
- Released a new ad in key
battleground states on the difference between the two plans (http://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=o4_M2bvQrY8 ); - Mailed DVDs to more than 250,000 households in battleground states on John McCain's disastrous healthcare plan;
- Helped host dozens of press conferences highlighting how McCain's health care plan would impact key groups, such as women and veterans;
- Promoted a new state-by-state analysis of McCain's proposal with the Center for American Progress; and
- Distributed a new side-by-side on healthcare to voters across the country.
SEIU
also hosted the first issue forum of the presidential campaign to focus
on healthcare and launched the Road to Healthcare bus tour which
traveled 8500 miles and held events in 17 states. Senator Barack Obama
and six other candidates and elected officials across the country
walked a day in the shoes of healthcare workers.
SEIU
Executive Vice President Eliseo Medina will also be attending the town
hall debate and will be available to talk to the media.