UNIONS HELP FORM LARGE COALITION TO PUT UNIVERSAL AFFORDABLE HEALTH CARE ATOP CAMPAIGN, 2009 AGENDA

Friday, July 11, 2008

(PAI)

By Mark Gruenberg

PAI Staff Writer

WASHINGTON (PAI)--The nation’s unions, including the United Food and Commercial Workers, the Communications Workers, AFSCME, the AFL-CIO and SEIU, helped form a large coalition to put enactment of universal affordable health care atop the agenda of both this year’s election campaign and the first days of Congress in 2009.

In a packed press conference in Washington on July 8 featuring simultaneous roll-out of the first of a series of TV spots on the issue, Health Care For America Now coalition organizers vowed to spend at least $45 million on the drive.

They also said they would start with a 5-million-person mass e-mailing, put 100 organizers in 45 key congressional districts in swing states and create a national grass-roots campaign to convince voters to put pressure on politicians to commit to the change. There were also campaign-opening events in 52 other cities.

But while the 116-group coalition set out 10 principles for a new health care system it demands lawmakers enact and erect--and a new president approve--it did not endorse any specific plan to get to the system.

Their principles are led by “truly comprehensive and affordable health care in which no one is left out.” They also include a choice between private insurance and “public insurance without a private middleman,” standardized benefits, cost controls, “a watchdog role for government,” and shared responsibility among government, business and workers for shouldering costs. The public insurance section is non-negotiable.

The group issued stinging critique of the present broken health care system and particularly of the health insurance companies. They also slammed ideas--mostly advanced by GOP politicians--to leave individuals at the mercy of the private insurance market, armed only with tax credits. But the coalition did not totally evict the insurers, since 160 million people still get coverage from employer-provided insurance.

Nevertheless, “We have a message for the politicians: If you put profits before patients, get out of the way,” said AFSCME President Gerald McEntee. Added coalition Executive Director Richard Kirsch: “It is time to pick a side. Which side are you on?” he asked of the politicians the coalition plans to influence.

Union leaders at the D.C. press conference made it clear the time for talk on

health care has ended and the time for citizen pressure on politicians to act is now.

“Health care keeps people awake at night, wondering if they can survive,” said UFCW President Joe Hansen. “Congress will move when we build a grass-roots movement to beat the high-priced lobbyists who have denied the American people health care for decades.”

“Year in and year out, we hear promises from pols and nothing gets done,” said McEntee, whose union--along with SEIU and NEA--includes tens of thousands of health care workers. “Meanwhile millions are denied health care and millions more can’t afford it.” And in a warning for the insurers, he added: “Don’t tell us about your need for a $10,000 deductible” for out-of-pocket spending on health care.

“Something is very wrong in America when war is a given and health care is a maybe. Something is very wrong in America when tax cuts for the rich are a right and health care is a privilege,” declared SEIU Secretary-Treasurer Anna Burger.

She told Press Associates afterwards the principles the coalition is pushing would be the centerpiece of her union’s planned $145 million political drive from now through the first 100 days of the next Congress.

That includes spending to elect pro-universal health care candidates this fall, spending on grass-roots lobbying on the issue in both D.C. and congressional districts next year, and $10 million in reserve to be used against politicians who welsh on their pro-universal care promises. “We’re doing this for the millions of Americans who are struggling to get by,” Burger added.

Retiring NEA President Reg Weaver said the nation’s teachers see the direct impact of 9 million kids without health care coverage in the schools. “Kids without heath care benefits can’t learn,” said Weaver, whose union, the nation’s largest, includes thousands of school nurses.

The coalition did not take sides in the presidential race between the parties’ twp presumed nominees, Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Barack Obama (D-Ill.). The health care plans of both men “have holes” Kirsch said.

Unions or union groups on the coalition’s steering committee include UFCW, AFSCME, the National Education Association and SEIU. Each steering committee member contributed at least $500,000. A foundation added $10 million.

Other union or pro-union groups among the coalition’s members--but not on the steering committee--include the Communications Workers, the AFL-CIO, Americans United for Change, the Alliance for Retired Americans, Jobs With Justice, the Universal Health Care Action Network and Working America.

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