Obama to Unionists: "Now is the Time" for Health Insurance Reform (9/16/09)

President Barack Obama discussed the importance of reforming health care in
the U.S. with 3,000 union activists at the AFL-CIO Convention in  Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on September 15, and thanked working people for their 
efforts to help change the broken insurance system. Obama praised unionists for “making phone calls, knocking on doors and showing up at rallies” to aid the cause that he has made his top legislative priority.

“This isn’t just about the millions of Americans who don’t have  health
insurance, but it’s about the hundreds of millions more who do --  Americans
who worry that they’ll lose their insurance if they lose their job,  who fear
their coverage will be denied because of a pre-existing condition, who 
know that one accident or illness could mean financial ruin,” he pointed out. 

"Now is the time to deliver on health insurance reform…Because in the 
United States of America, nobody should go broke because they got  sick,” the
president added.

President Obama also reiterated his support for the Employee Free Choice 
Act, legislation that would allow working people to join unions without the 
often illegal interference used by employers to keep unions out.

“If a majority of workers want a union, they should get a  union,” Obama
declared.