Health Care

               Why does the union need health care reform??

As a union, our primary task is to bargain the best wages, working conditions, and benefits possible for ourselves. But we are severely disadvantaged when the cost of our health care is outpacing the cost of everything else, yet we must assume the cost of it every time we sit to bargain a contract.

Our wages suffer because money that would be going to wages must go to prop up health care. Our working conditions suffer because money that would go to fix working conditions issues must also go to health care. Even our pensions suffer because of the insatiable appetite of our broken health care "system".

System or racket? We've been wondering. Read the articles we've posted on "The Wall Street Option" and the tactics of private insurance. And make sure you catch Wendell Potter on the industry he worked for and knows well. We've posted the whole lotta nonsense from the head of Whole Foods because, well, you can't make this stuff up.

We include here a link to the AFTRA Convention Resolution on health care reform. We hope you read it. It sets out the ugly facts of American health care, facts that have only gotten worse since 2007, the year this resolution was adopted. And it supports universal care (everyone in) and preferably "single payer". Single payer still allows for private hospitals, private doctors, private clinics. It just means there is only one hand writing one check, the most cost efficient way to do it. But absent a "single payer" system, the resolution supported what has been called the Public Option - the addition of a public plan to be available along side the private insurance currently available.

Why? Because this is the best way to contain costs. And, once again, lower costs translate into better wages, better working conditions, and even better retirement benefits.

THE REFORM WE GOT
Something, but not what we were hoping for. Here are some links to some documents that the national AFL-CIO prepared to outline what was achieved and the timeline of those changes.

So far, no one has taken our grandmothers away to face death panels. The Russians haven't landed in St. Louis. Space monkeys haven't invaded our hospitals, Betsy McCaughey is, thankfully, off our TV screens. And private insurance companies are still able to raise your rates and cut your benefits. So, don't worry.

What does health reform mean to you?

Health reform: fact and fiction

Health reform: a timeline for implementation

CEO of Whole Foods to his customers:
Quit belly-aching and get a health savings account!
Hook, line and sinker, the co-founder and CEO of Whole Foods parrots the insurance industry line and tells his customers that they should stay away from "government run health care", be afraid of "rationing", and get with the "health savings accounts" plan. In case you've forgotten, those accounts were the centerpiece of the George W. Bush health reform initiative. As if our pockets aren't picked enough already....