Service Employees International Union (SEIU) members in Missouri have criticized Rep. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) for doing more for insurance companies than he does for Missouri families when it comes to health reform.
Last Friday at Blunt's Missouri office, union members, their families and others gathered to demand Blunt "put politics aside" and pass health reform legislation to ease the strain on Missouri families.
According to SEIU, the average family premiums in Missouri have risen 76.1 percent over the last nine years, 4.4 times faster than wages. The union members argued that insurance companies, whose record profits have risen 428 percent over the same time period, have counted on Blunt "as a reliable ally to block needed reforms."
Chris Miller, a Missouri public employee said he cannot understand why Blunt isn't pushing any "real" reform. "I take part in my government agency's health insurance committee and we have to make choices every year about either increasing the premium rates or cutting benefit levels," Miller said. "This year, we had no choice but to do both just to maintain coverage for our employees."
"If we don't move to control costs, premiums will almost double in the next ten years," Miller added. "I can't afford the near $22,000 it will cost to cover my family -- most people can't. Health insurance reform must guarantee every American can afford quality care."
Missouri SEIU members have accused Blunt of joining with health insurance companies to prevent lawmakers from passing a reform package that would include a public plan to compete with the private health insurance industry.
According to SEIU, in Missouri, just two insurance providers controlled more than two-thirds of the entire healthcare market in 2008, providing little room for competition.
On July 9 on a Columbia, Missouri radio talk show Blunt said it would have been "best" if the federal government had never gotten into "the healthcare business" in the first place. Programs like Medicare, Medicaid, the Veterans Administration and the State Children's Health Insurance Program can distort the marketplace, he said.
Blunt is not only leading the current opposition to healthcare reform in Congress, but he has a long record opposing more affordable healthcare for veterans, seniors and children, Missouri members said.