UE statment on health care (of interest to a single-payer advocates)

[Omaha Steve]

http://talkingunion.wordpress.com/2009/05/25/ue-statment-on-health-care/

Posted on May 25, 2009 by dsalaborblogmoderator

Meeting at the union’s national headquarters in Pittsburgh on May 14-15, UE’s General Executive Board discussed the national debate on healthcare and the reform proposals now being considered by Congress and the Obama administration. The union’s national leadership board adopted the following statement on healthcare reform. Talking Union believes that the UE statement will be of interest to a single-payer advocates at this critical juncture in the debate over health care reform.
UE STATEMENT ON HEALTHCARE REFORM

At least since the 1940s, UE has actively supported proposals to provide healthcare coverage to all in the U.S. through a national public health insurance plan, instead of private for-profit insurance. Our position was restated in UE Policy adopted at the 2007 convention, “Healthcare for All,” and at the national level and in UE communities across the country, UE has been an outspoken advocate of the “single-payer”, Medicare-for-all solution embodied in HR 676, whose primary sponsor is Rep. John Conyers (D-MI.) In the current Congress, HR 676 has 75 House co-sponsors in addition to Conyers, and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) has introduced a Senate version of the bill. HR 676 has been endorsed by 516 union organizations in 49 states ncluding 125 central labor councils and 39 AFL-CIO state federations.

For the first time in decades, the country has a presidential administration and a Congress that are working for a major overhaul of the U.S. healthcare system. While we are disappointed that the broadly-outlined plan under consideration by the Obama administrationand the Congressional leadership is not single payer, we note that it does include the creation of a public health insurance system. We welcome the national discussion of the need for an alternative to profit-driven health insurance.

Millions of workers and their families face a desperate situation, paying up to half their income for healthcare. Runaway medical costs have been the cause of half the personal bankruptcies in the U.S. in recent years. The healthcare cost crisis pushes municipalities, schooldistricts and private employers to the brink financial collapse and exacerbates the economic crisis in many ways.

The costs of maintaining a private, for-profit health insurance industry impose an enormous burden and competitive disadvantage on U.S. businesses. Nonetheless, blinded by some combination of “free market” ideological rigidity and capitalist class solidarity with the insurance executives, the Chamber of Commerce, National Association of Manufacturers, National Federation of Independent Business, and almost every employer continue to oppose a single-payer plan that would drastically reduce their costs. These business interests strenuously object to creating even a strong public plan in competition with private insurers, despite the fact that this would almost certainly bring down employers’ costs.

Even a limited public plan, set up in competition with private insurers, would have a major cost-reducing effect on the American healthcare system. Studies show that because they have much lower administrative costs, get larger volume discounts for health services, and do notinclude profit margins, public healthcare plans such as Medicare are able to offer premiums that are 20 to 30 percent lower than those of private plans.

FULL story at link.