There was only one speaker at Sen. Harry Reid's press conference today who was NOT a member of the U.S. Senate. Her name? Loretta Johnson, a home health care worker who lost her own coverage when her husband became ill, and Loretta was forced to quit her job.

Loretta is an SEIU member who worked for 18 years as a deputy courthouse clerk in Lebanon, Virginia. When her husband fell ill, Loretta quit her job to take care of him, and subsequently lost their health insurance, income, retirement, security, sick days and more. Today, as a personal care assistant, Loretta works to build the Personal Care Assistant Association in Virginia. While she brings home a paycheck, she still doesn't have health insurance or benefits of any kind.

Below are Loretta's remarks at today's Senate health care bill unveiling:

My husband had open heart surgery and was diabetic. And in 2000, he was so sick I had to quit my job to take care of him. So, I lost my health insurance. After he passed away, I became a home health care worker. I'm at the bedside every day giving people the same type of care I gave my husband. But, I don't have health insurance.

And that is why I am so proud to be standing here today representing SEIU and its 2.1 million workers.

Because, after more than 100 years of debate, Senator Reid said, "Enough". Enough scare tactics. Enough politics as usual.

The Senate's Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act puts us one step closer to health care that works for every American.

Because of his leadership, insurance companies will no longer control our healthcare system - making sure people like me actually have a choice.

Now, in my opinion, there's probably some room for improvement. But I know, Senator Reid and the Senators standing here today are as committed as we are to making sure people can afford the care they need.

And believe me, I'll be up here to make sure every one of these Senators does just that.

Watch full video from today's press conference with Loretta here.

You can also see Loretta Johnson at SeniorstoSeniors.org.

There was only one speaker at Sen. Harry Reid's press conference today who was NOT a member of the U.S. Senate. Her name? Loretta Johnson, a home health care worker who lost her own coverage when her husband became ill, and Loretta was forced to quit her job.

Loretta is an SEIU member who worked for 18 years as a deputy courthouse clerk in Lebanon, Virginia. When her husband fell ill, Loretta quit her job to take care of him, and subsequently lost their health insurance, income, retirement, security, sick days and more. Today, as a personal care assistant, Loretta works to build the Personal Care Assistant Association in Virginia. While she brings home a paycheck, she still doesn't have health insurance or benefits of any kind.

Below are Loretta's remarks at today's Senate health care bill unveiling:

My husband had open heart surgery and was diabetic. And in 2000, he was so sick I had to quit my job to take care of him. So, I lost my health insurance. After he passed away, I became a home health care worker. I'm at the bedside every day giving people the same type of care I gave my husband. But, I don't have health insurance.

And that is why I am so proud to be standing here today representing SEIU and its 2.1 million workers.

Because, after more than 100 years of debate, Senator Reid said, "Enough". Enough scare tactics. Enough politics as usual.

The Senate's Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act puts us one step closer to health care that works for every American.

Because of his leadership, insurance companies will no longer control our healthcare system - making sure people like me actually have a choice.

Now, in my opinion, there's probably some room for improvement. But I know, Senator Reid and the Senators standing here today are as committed as we are to making sure people can afford the care they need.

And believe me, I'll be up here to make sure every one of these Senators does just that.

Watch Loretta speak here:

You can also see Loretta Johnson at SeniorstoSeniors.org

On Sunday, members of the Connecticut faith community staged a candlelight vigil outside Sen. Joe Lieberman's home in Connecticut. The Stamford Advocate reported, "clergy from several religious dominations prayed in three languages outside the fourth-term senator's home, surrounded by a crowd the Fire Marshal's Office estimated to number nearly 500."

Members of the local faith community held the vigil after being turned down several times trying to meet with Sen. Lieberman about health care reform.

Those gathered outside declared that "health care is a fundamental human right" and asked Senator Lieberman "What is it you stand for?" They urged Sen. Lieberman to search his conscience, and reconsider his pledge to support for a Republican filibuster of health care reform. Thanks to FireDogLake for early reporting on this story.

For more than a decade, SEIU members have been fighting for quality, affordable health care for all. In 2003, we launched the Americans for Health Care campaign and began educating, training and organizing around health care issues in battleground states. We identified more than 600,000 health care voters in key states, including Iowa, New Hampshire and Colorado.

In 2007 and 2008, our Healthcare United campaign mobilized more than one million health care professionals - doctors, nurses, lab technicians, and more - in support of health care reform. And throughout this period, SEIU members have led state and workplace efforts to improve access to and delivery of quality health care.

Last November, our members helped elect President Barack Obama on a pledge that health care reform would be a top priority for his administration. Soon afterward, we launched our Change that Works campaign - a multi-state campaign with targeted field, new media, communications and lobbying on key worker issues, including health care reform. After ten years of focused work on this issue, this weekend's passage of the House health care bill is a moment we should celebrate.

Take a look at some of the highlights in this historic legislation:

Coverage Expansion

• Requires most employers (employers with a payroll of more than $500,000) to provide employees with health insurance, or make an insurance contribution on their behalf, starting in 2013.
  
• Requires most people to obtain health care coverage beginning in 2013.
  
• Allows children up to 27 years of age to remain on their parents' health care policies.

More Choices in Health Care Coverage

• Creates a federal health insurance exchange in 2013. Individuals and employers can purchase insurance on the exchange.
  
• Establishes a public health insurance option within the insurance exchange by 2013.
  
• Breaks up the insurance company cabal by repealing the blanket antitrust exemption for health insurers. This is expected to lead to more competition.

Encouraging Small Businesses to Cover Employees

• Provides tax credits for certain small businesses that offer health insurance to their employees.

Ending Abuse by Insurers

• Bars insurance companies from denying, changing or reducing coverage based on "pre-existing conditions." This does not go into effect until 2013. In the meantime, it restricts how long insurers can continue to limit coverage for a "pre-existing condition" (only 30 days - in other words, if you have a "pre-existing condition" and wanted a new insurance policy, the insurance company can only look back 30 days into your medical history).
  
• Prohibits companies from considering domestic violence to be a "pre-existing condition."
  
• You'll no longer be told by a health care provider, "Sorry, but you've reached your annual cap. Your insurer will not pay for this procedure." This bill prohibits insurance companies from offering policies with annual or lifetime spending caps.
  
• Bans "gender rating" whereby insurers unfairly charge women up to 48% more than men for the same health insurance policies.
  
• Guarantees no out-of-pocket costs for preventive care, and limits annual expenses to $5,000 for individuals, $10,000 for a family.
  
• Requires all qualified health benefits plans to provide coverage that meets or exceeds an "essential benefits package," which includes maternity care, well-baby and well-child care, mental health and substance use disorder services, prescription drugs, and hospitalization.

Unfortunately, the bill also included an amendment offered by Rep. Bart Stupak (D-MI) that, according to Huffington Post, "potentially goes farther than any other federal law to restrict women's access to abortion." Read more about this amendment, here.

SEIU is committed to women's reproductive health, and we'll be working to see that any harmful language on women's health issues does not appear in any final health care bill. That work begins with ensuring that the U.S. Senate doesn't take up a similar amendments that distract us from the real work of fixing health care.

Moments ago, the House gaveled in a vote on health care reform. The vote was 220 to 215, with only a single Republican brave enough to break with his party's blockade. Today, we conquered the special interests of "No We Can't," and won a victory for our country.

Click here to see how your Representative voted, and write them.

The day was not without drama, however. It began with a series of attempts by House Republicans to obstruct debate. Rep. Tom Price (R-GA) shouted, "I OBJECT, I OBJECT, I OBJECT" while Democratic Congresswomen attempted to speak on gender discrimination by insurers.

The day was also not without zany antics. Rep. John Shadegg (R-AZ) held up a baby, and pretended to speak as the baby on the House floor. (We're not kidding!) At many points during the debate, it seemed like we'd never reach a point where Congress would actually vote on health reform.

But we did it - you did it. You made thousands of phone calls to Congress, sent millions of emails and petition signatures, talked to neighbors, family members and friends about getting involved, and rallied in your communities. We couldn't have come this far without everyday Americans stepping forward, speaking out, and refusing to let the status quo remain in Washington.

Celebrate tonight the passage of H.R. 3962, "The Affordable Health Care for America Act," by thanking (or admonishing) your Representative for their vote on health insurance reform. We've come this far - and we're going the whole way.

For those of you who made whip calls this week - we are especially grateful. Our legislative team used your reporting to guide their strategy on calling various Congressional offices. Read a selection of great report-backs we used on Capitol Hill. There's no doubt that your calls helped convince key Democrats in Congress to vote for health care reform.

Stay with us in the weeks ahead, as we work to win votes in the U.S. Senate through our "adopt-a-state" campaign. Congratulations!

The House began debating H.R. 3962, "The Affordable Health Care for America Act," a little before 11am today. If you were watching C-SPAN, you might be wondering if it's normal for members of Congress to show such disrespect to one another by repeatedly shouting "I OBJECT" over their colleagues. You might also be wondering why Republican Congressmen are so adamantly opposed to allowing women in Congress to speak about gender discrimination in health care.

At this time, the House is engaged in determining the rules governing the debate. It was originally predicted by the Washington Post to be voted on between 10 and 11 a.m., but Republicans have risen to interrupt several Democratic Congresswomen before the Chair.

These women in Congress have risen to insert into the record a brief statement about women's health care issues - ranging from discrimination by health insurers to breast cancer research and treatment - but Republicans in Congress, like Rep. Tom Price, have repeatedly interrupted by shouting "I OBJECT, I OBJECT, I OBJECT," over their women colleagues. You really have to watch it to believe it:

Rep. Lois Capps and other women in Congress were rising to speak on issues that impact millions of American women - and how "The Affordable Health Care for America Act" will address these issues.

Today's GOP behavior follows a longer narrative of Republican disinterest in addressing gender discrimination in health care, including Sen. Kyl's remarks on why insurers shouldn't have to cover maternity care, and the introduction of the House GOP health care bill - which doesn't contain a single mention of "women" in its pages (aside from language on abortion).

Special note: when House Republicans stood up to insert their own remarks to the record, not a single Democrat objected.

A version of the Republican health care bill was leaked today, and it's underwhelming, to say the least. For starters, the draft bill completely ignores women's health care issues. In fact, there is not a single mention of "women" in the entire bill (and "woman" appears just once, in a passage about - surprise! - abortion). By comparison, The Affordable Health Care for America Act introduced by House Democrats has 101 mentions of "women" on 37 separate pages.

What are we supposed to think about all this? Are Republicans betting that insurance companies will fix the gender gap on their own? Will they magically start covering maternity care? Will they voluntarily stop treating rape and domestic violence as pre-existing conditions? Here are just a few other glaring omissions in this draft version of the GOP bill:

• Allows insurers to deny coverage due to "pre-existing conditions" (which, we've recently learned, range from underweight babies to rape and domestic violence victims)


• Allows insurers to withhold maternity coverage and follow-up visits for the baby's health


• Allows insurers to require limitless out-of-pocket costs, which have already resulted in sending millions of Americans into medical bankruptcy


• Allows insurers to continue the practice of "gender rating," whereby insurers often arbitrarily charge women up to 48% more than men for the same policies

What do Senators Mary Landrieu (D-LA), Ben Nelson (D-NE), Blanche Lincoln (D-AR) and Joe Lieberman (D-CT) all have in common? They all caucus with the Democratic party, but they alone could decide whether the Senate gets to vote on health care reform!

Sen. Lieberman claims that "to put a government-created, government-run insurance company on top of [health care reform] is just too much, even with a state opt-out." Sen. Landrieu said she opposes the public option. Period.

The future of health care in America is too important - the cause, too great - to deny the full Senate a chance to vote. Americans voted in record-breaking numbers in 2008, and we elected a President who's promise of change rested on a simple, singular anthem: YES WE CAN. As we approach the anniversary of President Obama's election, we're on the verge of winning health insurance reform that demonstrates that "Yes We Can" is alive and well. As SEIU President Andy Stern said today, the House bill proves that:

"Yes we can provide quality health insurance that is affordable to 96 percent of the nation.

"Yes we can have a strong public option that drives costs down and gives people the power to choose what is best for their family.

"Yes we can hold insurance companies accountable and make sure they can never deny someone care because of an alleged 'pre-existing condition' such as a C-Section or pregnancy or rape.

"Yes we can all share responsibility - individuals, businesses, and government - where employers offer and contribute to meaningful coverage for their employees.

"And yes, we can pay for it - not adding a single dime to our country's deficit. What's more is that we can do it responsibly so as not to add another burden to working Americans.

That's why we're launching a campaign today that mobilizes an entire nation of health care voters to make sure that the Senate, after months of work, does actually vote on health insurance reform. While we all may not live in Louisiana, Nebraska, Arkansas or Connecticut, we can still reach out to voters who do live in those states and encourage them to contact their Senators.

To join our campaign, simply choose a team below and help us reach out to the constituents of these four Senators:

• Team Arkansas (Blanche Lincoln)
• Team Connecticut (Joe Lieberman)
• Team Louisiana (Mary Landrieu)
• Team Nebraska (Ben Nelson)

The health care debate has been long and hard fought. As we near the time when we expect the Senate to take up a bill and vote on reform, there are a lot of questions about what exactly will be happening from a procedural standpoint. After all, the Senate has a lot of complicated and misunderstood rules. Foremost among them are cloture and the filibuster.

First, filibusters really don't happen the way they did when Mr. Smith went to Washington. Instead, the word filibuster is commonly used to refer to any time a bloc of 41 or more senators vote against considering a piece of legislation or letting it come to a floor vote. This week Andy Stern wrote in an op-ed on Huffington Post that there is no such thing as a Republican filibuster, because the GOP caucus only has 40 votes. As a result, the only way health care reform can be blocked is if members of the Democratic caucus join the Republicans to oppose moving forward.

Second, the Senate is governed largely by consensus. Things don't get done without either everyone agreeing to them or there being a vote to see where the members of the Senate stand. One of the tools the Senate uses to keep the wheels turning is cloture. Cloture is simply a vote on whether or not to end consideration of an issue or piece of legislation for the time being. In our one hundred member Senate, there must be sixty votes in favor of cloture for a cloture motion to pass and the Senate to move forward. The Congressional Research Service has a great, detailed report on filibusters and cloture (PDF link), but I'm going to try to distill some of it here to explain what we expect to come during the health care debate.

To understand the procedure on cloture votes and filibusters on health care, it's important to look at the general process. After the Senate HELP Committee and Senate Finance Committee bills have been merged, the final bill will need to be brought to the Senate floor. Because the health care reform bill deals with funding, the Senate will need to use a bill from the House Ways and Means Committee in order to introduce the legislation - the Senate health care reform bill will be offered as a substitute amendment to that House bill. Offering a new bill as a substitute to a bill from the House is common Senate procedure and the House bill in question doesn't even have to relate to health care.

There are likely going to be three big points in the Senate debate of health care reform legislation that will almost certainly be subject to cloture votes. Each one of these votes will require sixty senators in favor of moving forward, yet none of them will be on the actual health care reform bill itself!

1.Cloture Motion on Motion to Proceed to Measure's Consideration: This will be the first step, where the Senate will ask itself: Do enough of us want to start debating specific health care reform legislation on the floor? Assuming that 60 senators do, the process will continue;

If Cloture on the Motion to Proceed is "invoked" (a fancy senate term for saying 60 Senators voted yes) then the Motion to Proceed will be adopted by a majority vote and the Senate will start debating the House bill that I mentioned above. Next the very first thing that will happen is that the "merged" Finance/HELP Committee bill will be offered as a complete substitute to the House bill. Then the fun really begins. Senators offer dozens of amendments, the Majority and Minority Leaders try to work out Unanimous Consent agreements, which I will explain below, to get lots of the amendments votes and sometimes Senators even filibuster each other's amendments. But sooner or later the Majority Leader says that is enough. That's when...

2.Cloture Motion on Manager's Amendment (Substitute Amendment): After considerable debate and amendment to the substitute, the Majority Leader will file Cloture on the Substitute. If there are 60 votes here, the Merged reform bill/Substitute as amended will get an up or down vote after 30 hours of post cloture consideration. Then...

3. Cloture Motion Filed on Measure (Final Passage): After the Substitute Amendment is adopted, the Senate still needs to bring debate on the entire bill to a close, so in oder to get to final passage of the health reform bill in the Senate, there will be one more cloture vote -- on the final bill (or to get super technical, on that old house bill as amended by the Substitute). Assuming 60 senators support getting to a final vote on the bill they've just spent days and weeks amending and debating (not to mention months doing the same in Committee), then there will be an opportunity for the health care reform bill to receive a straight up-or-down vote.

What should you expect when you see a cloture motion? Lots of debate and delay. After cloture is filed, it takes one day and an hour to ripen. So if a cloture motion is filed on Monday, it cannot be voted on until Wednesday. After the motion for cloture is voted on, there is then 30 hours of debate for post-cloture consideration. This time period includes debate, roll call votes, and quorum calls. Basically each of these three big procedural steps prior to a cloture motion and vote on cloture will add a number of days before the next soonest step can be reached. This is why we expect the entire Senate floor debate of health care reform to be a process that could last, at minimum, a couple of weeks.

Now I haven't talked at all about amendments...and we should expect to see dozens or hundreds filed. The reality is that anything that is debatable is subject to cloture, so that includes amendments to the bill that is brought to the floor. While it's possible that the entire floor debate and amendment process is filled with cloture votes (making it a very long and drawn-out process), it's more likely that the Senate will agree to a Unanimous Consent Agreement to govern debate and amendments. The UC Agreement sets out exactly how much time every amendment will be given for debate, how much time Republicans and Democrats will get to speak, and how many votes it will take to pass that amendment. Expect more controversial amendments to require 60 votes to pass, while less controversial ones will take a simple majority.

How does all of this process relate to the goal of passing meaningful health care reform legislation? The opponents of health care reform in the Senate will be given at least three major opportunities to stop this bill from getting a simple up-or-down vote. In each case, they will use procedure to try to stop legislation that the American public overwhelmingly supports. Health care reform is so important that it must receive an up-or-down vote to determine its outcome. Anything less is unacceptable.

Between now and the first Motion to Proceed to health care reform, there will be many twists and turns in the fight. The substance of the bill will change. The number of people that it helps will hopefully grow larger. But at the end of the day, this is vital legislation that deserves a straight up-or-down vote from the Senate. Even those members who are opposed to the underlying bill itself should not hide behind procedural hurdles to prevent it from receiving an up-or-down vote. If they oppose reform, that can best be expressed through debate of the bill, through the amendment process, and on final passage. The issue of health care reform is simply too important to be defeated by a minority of the Senate, hiding behind procedure.

We'll have more updates on Senate and House procedure as the legislative fight progresses. Stay tuned for updates!

The health care debate has been long and hard fought. As we near the time when we expect the Senate to take up a bill and vote on reform, there are a lot of questions about what exactly will be happening from a procedural standpoint. After all, the Senate has a lot of complicated and misunderstood rules. Foremost among them are cloture and the filibuster.

First, filibusters really don't happen the way they did when Mr. Smith went to Washington. Instead, the word filibuster is commonly used to refer to any time a bloc of 41 or more senators vote against considering a piece of legislation or letting it come to a floor vote. This week Andy Stern wrote in an op-ed on Huffington Post that there is no such thing as a Republican filibuster, because the GOP caucus only has 40 votes. As a result, the only way health care reform can be blocked is if members of the Democratic caucus join the Republicans to oppose moving forward.

Second, the Senate is governed largely by consensus. Things don't get done without either everyone agreeing to them or there being a vote to see where the members of the Senate stand. One of the tools the Senate uses to keep the wheels turning is cloture. Cloture is simply a vote on whether or not to end consideration of an issue or piece of legislation for the time being. In our one hundred member Senate, there must be sixty votes in favor of cloture for a cloture motion to pass and the Senate to move forward. The Congressional Research Service has a great, detailed report on filibusters and cloture (PDF link), but I'm going to try to distill some of it here to explain what we expect to come during the health care debate.

To understand the procedure on cloture votes and filibusters on health care, it's important to look at the general process. After the Senate HELP Committee and Senate Finance Committee bills have been merged, the final bill will need to be brought to the Senate floor. Because the health care reform bill deals with funding, the Senate will need to use a bill from the House Ways and Means Committee in order to introduce the legislation - the Senate health care reform bill will be offered as a substitute amendment to that House bill. Offering a new bill as a substitute to a bill from the House is common Senate procedure and the House bill in question doesn't even have to relate to health care.

There are likely going to be three big points in the Senate debate of health care reform legislation that will almost certainly be subject to cloture votes. Each one of these votes will require sixty senators in favor of moving forward, yet none of them will be on the actual health care reform bill itself!

1.Cloture Motion on Motion to Proceed to Measure's Consideration: This will be the first step, where the Senate will ask itself: Do enough of us want to start debating specific health care reform legislation on the floor? Assuming that 60 senators do, the process will continue;

If Cloture on the Motion to Proceed is "invoked" (a fancy senate term for saying 60 Senators voted yes) then the Motion to Proceed will be adopted by a majority vote and the Senate will start debating the House bill that I mentioned above. Next the very first thing that will happen is that the "merged" Finance/HELP Committee bill will be offered as a complete substitute to the House bill. Then the fun really begins. Senators offer dozens of amendments, the Majority and Minority Leaders try to work out Unanimous Consent agreements, which I will explain below, to get lots of the amendments votes and sometimes Senators even filibuster each other's amendments. But sooner or later the Majority Leader says that is enough. That's when...

2.Cloture Motion on Manager's Amendment (Substitute Amendment): After considerable debate and amendment to the substitute, the Majority Leader will file Cloture on the Substitute. If there are 60 votes here, the Merged reform bill/Substitute as amended will get an up or down vote after 30 hours of post cloture consideration. Then...

3. Cloture Motion Filed on Measure (Final Passage): After the Substitute Amendment is adopted, the Senate still needs to bring debate on the entire bill to a close, so in oder to get to final passage of the health reform bill in the Senate, there will be one more cloture vote -- on the final bill (or to get super technical, on that old house bill as amended by the Substitute). Assuming 60 senators support getting to a final vote on the bill they've just spent days and weeks amending and debating (not to mention months doing the same in Committee), then there will be an opportunity for the health care reform bill to receive a straight up-or-down vote.

What should you expect when you see a cloture motion? Lots of debate and delay. After cloture is filed, it takes one day and an hour to ripen. So if a cloture motion is filed on Monday, it cannot be voted on until Wednesday. After the motion for cloture is voted on, there is then 30 hours of debate for post-cloture consideration. This time period includes debate, roll call votes, and quorum calls. Basically each of these three big procedural steps prior to a cloture motion and vote on cloture will add a number of days before the next soonest step can be reached. This is why we expect the entire Senate floor debate of health care reform to be a process that could last, at minimum, a couple of weeks.

Now I haven't talked at all about amendments...and we should expect to see dozens or hundreds filed. The reality is that anything that is debatable is subject to cloture, so that includes amendments to the bill that is brought to the floor. While it's possible that the entire floor debate and amendment process is filled with cloture votes (making it a very long and drawn-out process), it's more likely that the Senate will agree to a Unanimous Consent Agreement to govern debate and amendments. The UC Agreement sets out exactly how much time every amendment will be given for debate, how much time Republicans and Democrats will get to speak, and how many votes it will take to pass that amendment. Expect more controversial amendments to require 60 votes to pass, while less controversial ones will take a simple majority.

How does all of this process relate to the goal of passing meaningful health care reform legislation? The opponents of health care reform in the Senate will be given at least three major opportunities to stop this bill from getting a simple up-or-down vote. In each case, they will use procedure to try to stop legislation that the American public overwhelmingly supports. Health care reform is so important that it must receive an up-or-down vote to determine its outcome. Anything less is unacceptable.

Between now and the first Motion to Proceed to health care reform, there will be many twists and turns in the fight. The substance of the bill will change. The number of people that it helps will hopefully grow larger. But at the end of the day, this is vital legislation that deserves a straight up-or-down vote from the Senate. Even those members who are opposed to the underlying bill itself should not hide behind procedural hurdles to prevent it from receiving an up-or-down vote. If they oppose reform, that can best be expressed through debate of the bill, through the amendment process, and on final passage. The issue of health care reform is simply too important to be defeated by a minority of the Senate, hiding behind procedure.

We'll have more updates on Senate and House procedure as the legislative fight progresses. Stay tuned for updates!

We've waited long enough.

Right now, everyone is paying for the cost of our broken health care system. People with "pre-existing conditions" are being denied coverage by insurers. Women are being charged 30-51% more than men for the same health insurance policies. Newborn babies are being denied coverage because they're "too fat" or "too small." And a jaw-dropping 44,000 people a year are dying because they lack health insurance. How much longer will Americans need to wait before Congress acts?

Today, we're sending our message loud and clear - that it's time to deliver on health care. Call 1-800-603-SEIU and use this form to report back on your call.

SEIU members are joining with voters across the country in calling Congress today, October 20th. Our union has a vibrant presence in Washington, and we've been hard at work lobbying for this legislation, but we're powerless without the participation of our membership. We've set a goal of making 3,000 calls from members online, but we need your help to get there. Make three calls (two Senators, one Representative), and tell your members of Congress you expect reform that:

• Ends insurance company abuse;
• Makes health care affordable for everyone;
• Includes a strong public health insurance option;
• Requires employers to pay their fair share;
• Does not contain taxes or more costs to working families who are already paying more than their fair share into the system.

I hope you'll call each of your members of Congress today at 1-800-603-SEIU and share this email with other SEIU members. We can't let insurance companies dictate what happens in Congress, because when they win, we lose.

Today, members of SEIU District 1199 visited the West Chester, Ohio district office of Rep. John Boehner to let him know loud and clear that they support a public health insurance option. Frazzled under the pressure, a staffer tried to back off Boehner's earlier public comments claiming that "the citizens of the 8th district are overwhelmingly opposed to a public option."

Rep. Boehner had also previously claimed that he had never met an American who supported the public health insurance option. With the visit by SEIU members in West Chester, it should be clear that he can't make this claim any more -- it's good that his staff recognizes this.

Yesterday, the Senate Finance Committee voted down the public option amendments introduced by Senators Rockefeller and Schumer. Sen. Schumer's public option amendment picked up moderate Democratic votes by Sen. Carper (D-DE) and Sen. Nelson (D-FL) - both of whom received hundreds of phone calls from people across the country in support of a public option.

The media is desperate for a story here - they're sniffing around for a new angle. Back in August, Republican opponents were declaring the public option dead. Health care reform, itself, seemed increasingly unlikely of passage. Well, no more. The public option has momentum, and despite dire predictions from the right, it's on the move. Thanks to your phone calls yesterday, we picked up two additional votes in the Senate's most conservative committee.

Sen. Schumer appeared on MSNBC's Hardball yesterday to discuss the vote:

Sen. Schumer is clear: if we keep this up, we are going to see a public option.Your phone calls gave voice to the two-thirds of Americans who support the public option. And because of your calls, we're winning.

Unfortunately, some Senators didn't listen. While we expected this move from the Republican faction, we are disappointed by some of the Democratic votes. Statements in support of increased competition and choice for American consumers directly conflict with votes against the Schumer amendment. Still, the majority of Democrats voted in support of giving consumers the choice of a public plan. Thanks to Senators Rockefeller, Bingaman, Kerry, Wyden, Schumer, Stabenow, Cantwell, Nelson, Menendez and Carper, all of whom represented their constituents yesterday - not insurance company interests.

In the next couple months, each member of Congress will have the opportunity to vote for the public option. While the various health care bills make their way through Congress, we must continue relating our personal stories to Senate and Congressional staff, writing letters to our local newspapers, talking to our neighbors and demonstrating why Americans need an affordable, competitive choice when buying health insurance.

Today, some time after 12pm ET, the Senate Finance Committee is scheduled to vote on an amendment to include a public option in their health care bill. Guess what - one of your Senators sits on the committee.

We can't lose this debate. Will you call your Senator? Dial 1-866-311-3405 and you'll be given talking points before being connected to your Senator's office. After you make the call, use this form to report-back.

The public health insurance option is a key component to meaningful reform. It will lower costs, introduce real competition, and serve as a check on insurance company greed. Without a public option, we'll be required to purchase health coverage from the same companies who brought us pre-existing conditions, unlawful rescission and denial of coverage.

Dial 1-866-311-3405 and urge your Senator to support a public option.

I know it's not the first time you've been asked to make a call, and it certainly won't be the last. But we can't grow bored of this fight. We can't lose sight of the goal - that every American has quality, affordable health care coverage.

The weeks ahead will be critical for winning provisions like a public health insurance option. Thank you for continuing to keep the pressure on - we can't afford to let up now.

Last night, Workers United President Bruce Raynor appeared on CNN to debate the healthcare public option. "If we don't have a government option in the program, then we are not going to have an affordable program that will cover every man, woman, and child in this country," said Raynor.

Even the opposition agreed that healthcare coverage is something all Americans need to have. Watch the interview here:

Transcript here.