Dave Regan, an appointee to Gov. Jerry Brown’s “Let’s Get Healthy California” task force and president of SEIU United Healthcare Workers West, issued the following statement concerning today’s announcement of the task force members. SEIU-UHW, along with the California Endowment, worked with the Governor and his staff for more than a year to develop the executive order.

“Asthma, obesity, diabetes, hypertension and other chronic diseases are driving our health system off a cliff, creating a tsunami of uncontrollable cost and unnecessary suffering for millions of people in our state. Governor Brown’s Let’s Get Healthy California executive order has opened the door to creating a new healthcare system that directly confronts the epidemic of chronic disease, and I believe in 10 years we will look back at this moment as the first step toward fundamentally changing health and healthcare for the better in California.”

SEIU United Healthcare Workers-West (SEIU-UHW) is the largest hospital and healthcare union in the western United States with more than 150,000 members. We unite every type of healthcare worker with a mission to achieve high-quality healthcare for all. SEIU-UHW is part of the 2.2 million-member Service Employees International Union (SEIU), the nation's fastest-growing union. Learn more at www.seiu-uhw.org.