CWA has embarked upon a campaign to achieve national health care reform. We need to begin now by building the movement needed to elect a President and members of Congress who will move our agenda and champion our causes. The first step in building that movement will be enacting the Employee Free Choice Act. That legislation is central to rebuilding the labor movement by strengthening unions. And we need a revitalized labor movement to press for national health care reform that will relieve the most contentious issue which plagues our bargaining and which threatens our standard of living.
In 2007, total national health expenditures was $2.3 TRILLION, or $7600 per person. Total health care spending represented 16 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP). Over the next decade U.S. health care spending is expected to increase at similar levels reaching $4.2 TRILLION in 2016, or 20 percent of GDP.For years health care costs have been rising two to three times faster than worker wage increases.
Since 2001, premiums for family health coverage have increased 78 percent while average wages have risen only 19 percent, according to a 2007 report by the Kaiser Family Foundation. Premiums averaged $12,106, of which workers paid $3,281, according to the report.
As health costs increase, employers that offer coverage are finding it harder to compete domestically with non-union employers that do not offer benefits and globally with companies in countries that have guaranteed national health insurance. These pressures are causing some employers to drop health coverage for their workers and retirees. There were almost 5 million more uninsured workers in 2006 than in 2000, and numbers have continued to rise.
Exploding health costs are hurting working families: One in four Americans say their family has had a problem paying for medical care during the past year, up 7 percentage points over the past nine years. Nearly 30 percent say someone in their family has delayed medical care in the past year. Most say the medical condition was at least somewhat serious.
A recent study by Harvard University researchers found that 50 percent of all bankruptcy filings were partly the result of medical expenses. The average out-of-pocket medical debt
for those who filed for bankruptcy was $12,000. The study noted that 68 percent of those who filed for bankruptcy had health insurance. Every 30 seconds in the United States someone files for bankruptcy in the aftermath of a serious health problem.
The current health care system isn’t working for workers, for retirees, for the uninsured, or for our employers. The problems of the health care system are too large to solve at our individual bargaining tables. As a result, we need to look to the legislative and political process to solve our health care problems. We need national legislation that will deliver health care we can count on.
We need national legislation that will meet the following tests:
1. Cover all Americans. We believe that everyone needs health care they can count on regardless of their health or income, regardless of whether they are working or not, whether they retire early or not. A system based on employers who voluntarily offer coverage and that allows some employers to freeload on others cannot survive.
2. Control costs. The system must be affordable, so any reform should streamline administration and reduce the high overhead costs required of our current complicated private insurance system. We should also make sure that no insurance company can increase its profits by denying people care.
3. Improve health quality. The care we receive should be of the highest quality, based on best practices. There needs to be a new focus on preventive care – our system is too focused on just treating illness. Quality care means assuring safe staffing levels for nurses with adequate and appropriate training for all caregivers.
4. Strong government role. The government must play a more active role – guaranteeing coverage and helping make it more affordable. Government should regulate insurance companies and negotiate prices with drug companies and other providers. Since we are asking the government to guarantee coverage of all Americans, we need a strong public plan that will be available to each one of us which offers high-quality care but at affordable costs.
5. Broad-based tax financing. The health care system must be financed fairly. Broad-based tax financing will spread the costs throughout the economy so that some employers – many of them union employers – are not left to carry the burden. Such financing will also mean that wage increases will no longer be eaten up by health cost increases.
The Democratic presidential candidates, Senators Barack Obama (Ill.) and Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.), have proposed expanding health-care coverage by requiring most employers to either offer it or pay a fee toward the purchase of health insurance. Expanded coverage, they say, will lower costs for everyone. The Republican candidate and presumptive presidential nominee Sen. John McCain (Ariz.) has proposed treating the value of employer-sponsored health-care plans as income taxable to employees and providing a $5,000 per family tax credit for those who buy health insurance. The chart included on this fact sheet provides other comparisons of the candidates proposals. It is clear that one of them will not meet the principles CWA has adopted.
We have a unique opportunity in the upcoming months leading up to the elections to begin to build the movement needed to elect a President and members of Congress who will move our agenda and make health care reform a reality. Our choices and our challenge cannot be more clear.
Through CWA’s Health Care and EFCA campaign, we will be conducting intensive workshops in targeted congressional districts. In the workshops, attendees will discuss what is wrong with our health care systems and what we can do together to fix it. They will also talk about the Employee Free Choice Act is and why it is critical to the future of our union and our country. Our goal is to connect with over 20,000 CWA members and retirees through these workshops and to build our Stewards Army. These will be the activists who will mobilize the movement to create the change we need.
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CWA Principle |
Hillary Clinton |
Barack Obama |
John McCain |
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Cover all Americans |
Every American must have coverage. |
All children must have coverage. |
No. |
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Large employers must offer coverage or pay into public plan. |
Employers must offer health benefits or pay into public system. |
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Private and public plan options available through Health Choices program. |
Public and private plans available through National Health Insurance Exchange. |
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Reduce costs |
Promote prevention through national preventive health initiative. |
Investment in Electronic Health Information Technology Systems. |
Malpractice reforms to limit lawsuits and damage awards. |
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Chronic care coordination to improve outcomes. |
Health insurance exchange to promote competition. |
Increase competition by allowing sale of insurance nationwide. |
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Best Practices Institute to promote quality care among physicians and patients. |
Pay Medicare Advantage plans same as Medicare. |
Promote competition among providers (e.g., nurse practitioners, retail clinics) |
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Improve health quality |
Reward quality through increased federal payments for excellence in care. |
Health plans to collect, analyze and report health quality data. |
Set national standards for measuring and recording treatments and outcomes. |
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Plans required to report data to ensure standard of quality are being met. |
Independent institute to guide comparative effectiveness studies. |
Require providers to report medical outcomes, costs, prices, and quality of care. |
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Strong government role |
Federal government administers Health Care Choices. |
Federal government administers National Health Insurance Exchange. |
Minimum involvement.
Federal protections against collusion, unfair business practices. |
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Insurance market reforms include guaranteed issue, limits on premium variation, mandatory coverage of preventive programs. |
Exchange sets standards for private plans including guaranteed issue, stable premiums, etc. |
National standards for treatments and outcomes. |
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Broad-based tax financing |
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No. |
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Large employers must provide employee plan or contribute to cost of coverage. Small businesses received refundable tax credit if they provide coverage. |
Employers will be required to either provide coverage to employees or contribute a percentage of payroll toward the cost of the national plan. |
No subsidy and increase costs for union members by removing favorable tax treatment of employer-sponsored health insurance. |
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Tax credits for individuals and families to assure that premiums do not exceed a fixed percentage of income. |
Income-related subsidies available for individuals and families. |
Provides $2,500 tax credit to all individuals, $5,000 for families to purchase health insurance coverage which is less than what we have generally negotiated from our employers. |
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Retiree legacy cost initiative to employers who offer retiree health insurance to offset catastrophic expenses. |
Federal subsidies for employers with catastrophic health care costs. |
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