WASHINGTON - January 22 - SEIU President Andy Stern met today with U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Mike Leavitt, praising the secretary for his commitment to create greater transparency in the health care system.

Stern added his name in support of Leavitt’s “Four Cornerstones of Value-driven Health Care,” a set of principles aimed at improving public reporting of health care cost and quality data.

“If we’re going to fix our nation’s broken health care system, patients must have easy access to meaningful information about quality and cost,” Stern said. “We must also make absolutely certain that electronic health records are secure and patient privacy is protected.”

As President of the largest union of health care workers in North America, Andy Stern has called for a fundamental reshaping of the nation’s health care system, recently challenging CEOs of the Fortune 500 to partner with SEIU to develop a new model that solves the health care crisis for American workers and businesses alike.

Last week, Stern joined with AARP CEO Bill Novelli and Business Roundtable President John J. Castellani to announce a new partnership to press for real solutions to the health care crisis. Stern said that new partnership was evidence of growing demand for change, with states like Massachusetts, California, and Pennsylvania taking steps towards universal coverage, and corporate America becoming more active in the call for action.

“The time is long overdue for America to address this crisis,” said Stern. “America needs a plan for the 21st century. Not a Democratic or Republican plan, or a business or labor plan. We need an American plan to ensure that every man, woman and child living in this country has access to quality care they can afford.”

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