From Labor Campaign for Single Payer
Labor must fight on to healthcare justice!
The Supreme Court has ruled. The Affordable Healthcare Act (ACA) is now the law of the land. Millions of Americans will now have increased access to healthcare and will benefit from increased regulation of the private insurance industry.
But the ACA does not solve the healthcare crisis facing all working people. Because it relies on private health insurance, healthcare will still be treated as a commodity. Millions will remain uncovered. Costs will continue to rise while quality deteriorates.
Under the ACA, unions will face new challenges in negotiating healthcare benefits. Race to the bottom pressures will accelerate and, by 2018, many workers will be faced with the cruel choice of reducing hard-won benefits that will be subject to a new “Cadillac Tax.” Many joint health and welfare funds will be unable to survive. The time has come to remove healthcare from the bargaining table and make it a right for everyone in America!
A publicly funded, single-payer, “Medicare-for-All” solution is the path forward to healthcare justice. Single-payer will provide a major economic stimulus, create new jobs and reduce federal, state and local budget deficits. But it’s the pain and suffering that it will relieve that really counts.
The AFL-CO has called on America’s unions to continue building on the ACA. “We cannot afford to go backwards,” they said. “America’s union movement will not take our eyes off the prize. We will keep moving forward until the right to a single high standard of care is a reality for everyone in America.”
The Labor Campaign for Single Payer works to bring all of labor together on this most fundamental struggle of our generation. We believe that labor has a special responsibility to address the social injustice of a broken healthcare system. Healthcare should be a right, not a privilege!
Published January 11th, 2012Like this post? Consider sharing it on
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