AFL-CIO President: Health Care Reform Critical to Economic Recovery

by James Parks, Jan. 30, 2000 Reforming the nation’s health care system, including cost controls, is a critical part of any national economic fix, AFL-CIO President John Sweeney said today, and he urged lawmakers and the White House to make it an urgent priority. Speaking to the 21st Annual Conference on Social Insurance, Fiscal Responsibility, and Economic Growth in Washington, D.C., Sweeney said the union movement is ratcheting up its commitment to creating a national system of affordable health care: This year, we’re adding a sword’s point to that commitment: We have no time left for dithering, we’re in a perilous economic ditch, and we will not dig our way out and fix our economy until we fix our health care system. The conference was hosted by the National Academy of Social Insurance, a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization made up of the nation’s leading experts on social insurance issues, such as Social Security, Medicare and workers’ compensation. Its mission is to promote understanding of how social insurance contributes to economic security and a vibrant economy. Click here to read Sweeney’s entire speech. Any health care reform must not only provide dependable delivery of service, Sweeney said, but contain costs as well. In health care reform, the single toughest issue is cost control—without cost savings, the debates over financing and the relative roles of public and private insurance programs are useless. National health care reform without cost controls is like moving furniture into a burning house. Workers understand that the nation’s health care crisis contributed in large part to the current economic collapse, Sweeney said. We in labor know the sad history all too well—we’ve been trying to bargain good wages for our members for all those years, and having to forego pay increases to maintain our benefits and keep premiums and co-payments under control. The bottom line is that health care costs have been picking the pockets of working families for a long time. After basic expenses, families have been left with less and less money to spend and save, and that has undermined the corner of our economy we call consumer spending. All stakeholders in the health care system—government, employers, insurers, workers, the medical community and pharmaceutical companies—will have to accept “their responsibilities when it comes to controlling costs and guaranteeing quality care,” Sweeney added. For the first time in many years, we have the political advantage when it comes to meaningful health care reform, and we must seize the moment. We must do it not only for the sake of the young, the old, the poor, the working poor, and the middle class who are depending on us, but in order to turn our economy around and make it work for everyone. 2 comments mustanguy on 31.01.2009 at 02:11 Thank GOD we have a leader that is on the side of the working man. I hope that all sides will work together to get us out of this mess. Wow when will the CEO’s wake up ,I think they are all brain dead, as to what they have done getting big money for to make a company go broke. We might have to take over ther jobs. a roadkill has more brains. TrueDemocrat on 02.02.2009 at 12:18 Plan Congressional Visits During Presidents’ Day Recess Congressman John Conyers re-introduced HR 676 into the 111th Congress on January 26th. The bill keeps the same number, HR 676, as it has since it was first introduced in 2003. Action Alert: Because this is a new Congress, representatives who co-sponsored HR 676 in the 110th Congress need to sign on again. Plus we need to get many more. Please make an appointment to see your representative over the Presidents’ Day recess that begins Feb. 13 and lasts until Feb. 22. Representatives will be in their home districts, and we need to ask them to sign on to and speak up for HR 676—and, of course, to vote for the Employee Free Choice Act. Please make sure your representative has a copy of the HR 676 resolution passed by your union. New HR 676 Improves Worker Protection An important improvement in the latest version of HR 676 is the expansion of protection for workers in insurance companies, doctors’ offices, hospitals and other work sites who are displaced or whose jobs are eliminated due to reduced administration. The new HR 676 guarantees to these workers, in addition to first priority in retraining and job placement in the new system, the right to benefits equal to their full current salary for up to two years while they make the transition. HR 676 will have a job creating impact, but the jobs created will not be the current type of billing and clerical jobs, nor jobs related to denying benefits. HR 676 is a pro-worker bill which, for the first time, will guarantee that no worker, ever again, will lose their health coverage! At this link, you will find the 33 who have already signed on as co-sponsors of HR 676, including four newly elected Democrats (Massa, Polis, Pingree, Tonko). http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/D?d111:1:./temp/~bdxQ2O:@@@P/bss/111search.html HR 676 would institute a single payer health care system by expanding a greatly improved Medicare system to everyone residing in the U. S. HR 676 would cover every person for all necessary medical care including prescription drugs, hospital, surgical, outpatient services, primary and preventive care, emergency services, dental, mental health, home health, physical therapy, rehabilitation (including for substance abuse), vision care, hearing services including hearing aids, chiropractic, durable medical equipment, palliative care, and long term care. HR 676 ends deductibles and co-payments. HR 676 would save hundreds of billions annually by eliminating the high overhead and profits of the private health insurance industry and HMOs. In the 110th Congress, HR 676 had 93 co-sponsors in addition to Conyers. HR 676 has been endorsed by 481 union organizations in 49 states including 118 Central Labor Councils and Area Labor Federations and 39 state AFL-CIO’s (KY, PA, CT, OH, DE, ND, WA, SC, WY, VT, FL, WI, WV, SD, NC, MO, MN, ME, AR, MD-DC, TX, IA, AZ, TN, OR, GA, OK, KS, CO, IN, AL, CA, AK, MI, MT, NE, NY, NV & MA). This is what Sweeney does not want! Call your congress person and she or he to sign on as a co-sponsor for this legislation, the answer to the health care crisis. AFL-CIO NOW blog Feb. 2, 2009 FYI Our Union - MSEA-SEIU - has also endorsed and supports HR676. The board of directors made that endorsement at their July 2008 meeting, thanks to the good work of Penny Whitney-Asdourian and Scott Neumeyer.