Union President’s Labor Day Message on Health Care

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Union President’s Labor Day Message on Health Care

We are pleased to present the Labor Day message below written by James V. Bertolone, President of American Postal Workers Union, Local 215, and President of the Rochester and Genesee Valley Area Labor Federation, AFL-CIO.

This op-ed appeared in the Rochester, New York, DEMOCRAT & CHRONICLE on August 29th and can be found at:


http://www.democratandchronicle.com/article/20080829/OPINION02/808290337/1039/OPINION

We wish all our readers a happy and safe Labor Day. See you at the Parade and Picnic.


MAKE U.S. HEALTHIER and WEALTHIER: PROVIDE HEALTH INSURANCE FOR ALL
LABOR DAY: UNIVERSAL HEALTH CARE COVERAGE

James V. Bertolone • Guest essayist • August 29, 2008

This coming Labor Day, working people from coast to coast will be
working for candidates who are ready to turn around our health care
system, turn around our economy, turn around the decline of the middle
class and turn around America.

Our polling shows that more than 80 percent of Americans think our
country is heading in the wrong direction; that our health care system
costs too much, excludes too many, covers too little and is getting
worse. The drive for universal health care coverage is mobilizing
thousands of working people in this year's election cycle.

Whether measured by the World Health Organization, the medical
profession or our own government's statistics, our health care costs
nearly twice as much per person as that in other industrialized societies.

Of America's gross domestic product, health care costs totaled 17
percent in 2006, and now in 2008 totals more than $7,000 per person.

With costs continuing to rise in a contracting economy, we apparently
are heading for $1 out of every $5 spent in our $14 trillion economy
going to health care by about the end of this decade.

While other countries have universal health care, we have more than 47
million Americans with no health insurance and more than 25 million
underinsured.

We rank 24th among industrialized countries and 37th overall in the key
areas for how long we live, infant mortality and immunizations. Only in
health care costs does the United States rank No. 1.

We also pay nearly 50 percent more than most industrialized countries
for prescription drugs.

In most other countries, the concept of for-profit health care insurance
is alien, as health care is considered a universal right.

In a for-profit system, health care companies increase profits by
denying coverage to those at risk, such as the elderly and those with
pre-existing conditions, and by denying medical procedures and tests.

I have yet to meet a person covered by Medicare who wishes to lose that
coverage to be at the mercy of for-profit health insurance.

The 15,000 doctors who belong to Physicians for a National Health
Program say that 60 percent of the uninsured and 28 percent of insured
Americans go without needed care due to costs, resulting in more than
18,000 deaths per year.

The U.S. Conference of Mayors, representing 1,100 mayors, in June
endorsed HR 676, single-payer Medicare for all. Back in 2003, an article
in The New England Journal of Medicine reported that nearly one-third of
U.S. health care costs, $2,300 per person, were due to administration
and profits. The article concluded that a single-payer system would
reduce administrative costs by $1,150 per person, saving $350 billion a
year, enough to insure all uninsured Americans. We know these costs have
risen in the past five years.

In our state, there is a large concern about the high cost of property
and school taxes. Imagine covering all health care costs for all our
police, fire, state, county, city, town and school district employees
for less than $4,000 per person, the average cost of universal health
care coverage in other industrialized nations. The thousands saved per
employee would result in real tax savings.

Companies' health care costs put us at a competitive disadvantage in the
global economy. Health care costs thwart startup businesses. And they
hinder workers' mobility if a potential job excludes coverage for a
spouse's or child's pre-existing serious or chronic condition.

This issue is also about family values. We know the primary cause of
divorce and family breakup is financial strain. Nearly half of all
bankruptcies are due to medical issues, while the other half are due to
job loss. In our system, job loss and loss of health insurance are the
same issue.

For-profit, deregulated health care is a wound on our country's soul.
Labor, with this election cycle and our advocacy after the election,
will not stop until universal health care is achieved for all — and we
turn around America.

Happy Labor Day.

#30#

Distributed by:
Kay Tillow
All Unions Committee For Single Payer Health Care--HR 676
c/o Nurses Professional Organization (NPO)
1169 Eastern Parkway, Suite 2218
Louisville, KY 40217