Issued June 20, 2014
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Mary Kay Henry, president of the Service Employees International Union, offered this statement in support of U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell's announcement today of management changes designed to strengthen implementation of the Affordable Care Act:
"Every working American struggling for affordable, quality care will benefit from the increased effectiveness and accountability that a new CEO and chief technology officer will bring to the healthcare marketplaces in advance of the fall enrollment period.
"Today's announcement shows that Secretary Burwell is already working to strengthen the implementation of the healthcare law. SEIU's 2.1 million members - nurses, doctors, childcare providers, homecare providers and security officers -- are ready to work with her to implement and improve the Affordable Care act, which together with Medicaid and Medicare form the pillars of our nation's healthcare system.
"Every day we see both the life-and-death difference that quality, affordable care makes in the lives of working people and also the way that access to such care raises or crushes their aspirations to get and stay in the middle class. Working Americans appreciate every effort to safeguard and extend the promise of affordable, quality care so that no one ever has to go back to the bad old days when insurance companies called all the shots. "