John Sweeney Health Quotations

Maryland's working families have sent a clear message to local governments across the country and corporate America by demanding health care fairness -- and winning.

Wages are flat or falling. Health care costs for families with employer coverage shot up 79 percent from 1996 to 2003. Imagine the hit on families struggling to make it without job-based coverage.

The facts are clear. More funding goes to health care than any other part of the state's budget, and it is sad that the special interests would either ask taxpayers to pay higher taxes or that they would ask our education system or transportation system to receive less.

We will look to the lessons of the Maryland victory as we move forward with out 'Fair Share Health Care' initiative.

Compared to 10 years ago, individuals are now expected to live, on average, two years longer, and health care and other expenses have grown. ... We believe that we're assisting individual investors ... by reducing the possibility that Americans will outlive their hard-earned retirement savings.

Despite the same, tired old scare tactics of the special interests, under the governor's budget New York will continue to spend more money than any other state on providing quality health care to its citizens. If the special interests want the taxpayers to spend even more than the record amounts they already provide, then the special interests need to say which tax they would raise or what other area of the budget they would cut.

The bottom line is that our health care system is broken, but it didn't just split open. Big companies like Wal-Mart are pulling it apart and profiting at taxpayers' expense.