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As somebody who owes over $100,000 in medical bills, has had my credit destroyed, and was often denied needed health care services while battling a life threatening illness because I was uninsured (see YES Magazine for story), I am proud to announce that the AFL-CIO Executive Committee took a bold and historic step by endorsing "Medicare For All" as the most cost effective and efficient way to provide all Americans with quality health insurance coverage (see story by Mark Gruenberg). Although not a specific endorsement of HR 676 or single payer, the AFL-CIO call for Medicare For All is a very important first step in moving America toward achieving once and for all a universal health care system with single-payer financing.
HR 676, Rep. John Conyers’ “United States National Health Insurance Act,” had more co-sponsors in the 109th Congress then any other universal health care bill in the Congress. It has the support of 220 union groups, 4 international unions, and over 13,000 physicians. PDA has been a major supporter of HR 676. As you know, America has 47 million uninsured, and is the only industrialized nation that does not provide universal health insurance coverage to its citizens. Tragically, the second leading cause of bankruptcy in the United States is from unpaid medical bills, and 18,000 Americans die each year because they lack adequate health insurance - a moral outrage! Perhaps the United States does not have the best health care system in the world after all!
But, the good news is that through the leadership of Marilyn Clement of Health Care Now and Kay and Walter Tillo, labor activists who lead the national labor struggle for passage of HR 676, the American people are successfully fighting back against corporate health care. It was the courageous and tireless efforts of grassroots labor activists who lobbied the AFL-CIO to support single payer, as embodied in HR 676 that made the AFL endorsement of "Medicare For All" even possible.
The AFL-CIO executive committee voted in favor of having the federal government play the leading role in providing health insurance, and provide the bulk of the financing for the American health care system. Committee members specifically endorsed the idea of building a universal health care system based on the highly successful single payer government program Medicare. This is a seismic change for AFL-CIO. For decades, organized labor had been in favor of keeping the employer-based private health insurance model intact. However, due to increasing cutbacks in worker health benefits, job lay-offs due to increasing health care costs, increasing co-pays, deductibles, and monthly premiums, labor across the board has now come to the conclusion that the employer-based health care system based on private health insurance can not be fixed; and, just like all other industrialized countries in Europe and Asia, the federal government must step in as the major provider of health insurance and financing. This is truly remarkable!
The AFL-CIO Executive Committee endorsement of Medicare For All is also significant for the Democratic Party, which, according to Rep. Dennis Kucinich, has not supported using the language "universal health care" in its national platform. However, given the AFL-CIO is a major donor to the Democratic Party, Democratic presidential candidates, and Democratic candidates in the House and Senate, this is sure to change. Former Sen. John Edwards, a major supporter of organized labor, has recently come out in favor of expanding Medicare to all Americans as one possible solution to solving the health care crisis. He recently publicly stated that if the American people and the business community want a single-payer system, then as president, he would work to make this happen! This is simply astounding, given that most members of Congress fear ever mentioning the words "single payer." Furthermore, this could mean that there will be more pressure on both House and Senate incumbents, and prospective Democratic House, Senate, and presidential candidates, to endorse and campaign on "Medicare For All" legislation; as opposed to other "Republican light" legislation which would provide subsidies to individuals or families who could then purchase private health insurance policies -- a policy disaster that hopefully Democrats will repudiate with pressure from the AFL-CIO.
Although the AFL-CIO did not come out specifically to endorse HR 676, major aspects of HR 676 were embodied in the resolution. Under HR 676, Medicare is expanded and improved to cover all Americans, and the system would transition to a non-profit health care system in order to control costs and promote overall efficiency. There would be no co-pays, deductibles, or balanced billing. Private health insurance companies would not be allowed to provide coverage for medically necessary services; and for-profit HMOs and hospitals would not be allowed to participate in the program unless they became non-profit institutions.
Under the AFL-CIO Executive Committee statement of principles, workers will be able to keep the coverage they currently have, until a ‘Medicare for All” program is fully in place. The PDA should welcome the endorsement of AFL-CIO calling for Medicare For All, but work for the full endorsement by the AFL-CIO of HR 676, which once and for all will create a non-profit universal health care system with single-payer financing.
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