Labor & Employment Law

At Roundtables, Workers Demand Health Care Reform

By Seth Michaels

This week, the grassroots movement for health care reform centered on working family roundtables where dozens of participants in key states testified about the need to fix the nation’s broken health care system. 

In Gary, Ind., more than 50 attendees, including union members, faith leaders and civil right activists, came together last night to discuss the changes we need to make health care accessible and affordable.

Roundtables also took place in Wisconsin and Nebraska this week, with many more scheduled in the days ahead. 

Working families say their big concern about the current Senate health care reform bill is that it would tax health benefits. The Senate bill includes a tax on health plans that cost more than $8,500 a year for individuals or $23,000 a year for families?but that’s not the right way to fund reform. 

In the Grand Forks Herald today, North Dakota AFL-CIO President David Kemnitz says reforming health care is an urgent priority?and that we must make sure it’s paid for fairly: 

One troubling proposal is a tax on the health benefits of middle-class families. It’s the wrong path. The average family health care premium is up 131 percent since 1999. Yet some in Washington think it’s OK to ask workers already struggling with stagnant wages, higher health care costs and foreclosures to pay more for what they already have. 

We know there is a better way. The House has passed legislation that will require the already wealthy to pay a fair share. We think it’s only right for those who benefit so richly from the $2.5 trillion Bush tax cuts to pay their fair share. 

In a new report at Health Affairs, researchers say high-cost health care plans don’t mean policyholders are getting “Cadillac” benefits. Instead, benefits could cost more because of factors such as the age and health of workers, and the cost may even depend upon where a company is located.

A new survey of employers suggests that with a health benefits tax in place, many employers would raise deductibles or co-payments?or reduce or eliminate their contributions to their workers’ health coverage. 

Here’s more news from the fight for health care reform: 

• Ed Coyle of the Alliance for Retired Americans appeared yesterday on MSNBC to set the record straight on how health care reform helps seniors and protects Medicare.
• The American Cancer Society Action Network explains the next steps in the Senate.
• Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.) offers a great health care reality check at the Huffington Post, saying everyone deserves access to the kinds of health care choices members of Congress have.
• The insurance industry’s latest attempt to manufacture dodgy numbers against health care reform is a bust.
• Families USA asks senators to allow a vote, not block health care reform with a filibuster.

Full post as published by AFL-CIO NOW BLOG on December 04, 2009 (boomark / email).