2009

  • WHEREAS, Health care in the United States is In the throes of a crisis of cost, accessibility and quality; and

    WHEREAS, Health insurance premiums skyrocketed over 10% in 2008 and more than 80% of all employers increased employee co-payments and premium contributions; and

    WHEREAS, These increases have helped sustain a climate of concessionary bargaining, pushing down wages, causing bitter strikes and lockouts and shifting more and more of the costs onto the backs of workers; and

    WHEREAS, Tens of thousands of retired workers stand to lose all or part of their hard won “lifetime” health coverage as 80% of all large companies have plans to require retirees to pay more for their coverage, and 20% of Fortune 500 companies plan to eliminate it altogether; and

    WHEREAS, The employment based system of health coverage puts benefits at risk every time workers face a lay-off, change jobs or go on strike; and

    WHEREAS, All other industrialized countries provide comprehensive coverage to all citizens as a fundamental human right, putting U. S. manufacturing employers and workers at a global competitive disadvantage; and

    WHEREAS, More and more friends, neighbors and family members have no health coverage at all as the number of uninsured Americans climbs past 47 million; and

    WHEREAS, Americans pay more for healthcare than any other country in the world and yet rank 28th in infant mortality, 24th in life expectancy

    WHEREAS, A just health care system would provide cradle-to-grave coverage for all Americans; and

    WHEREAS, Taking the profit out of health care and incorporating a fair financing system will ensure a just transition for all displaced health industry workers while providing that 95% of all taxpayers will save money; now

    THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, That Pride@Work joins with our brothers and sisters across the country, in the campaign for H. R. 3200, America’s Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009, to advocate, educate and organize around the following principles:

    1. Access to comprehensive health care is a human right. It is the responsibility of society, through its government, to assure this right. Coverage should not be tied to employment. Private insurance firms’ past record disqualifies them from a central role in managing health care.

    2. The right to choose and change one’s physician is fundamental to patient autonomy. Patients should be free to seek care from any licensed health care professional.

    3. Pursuit of corporate profit and personal fortune has no place in care giving and they create enormous waste. The U.S. already spends enough to provide comprehensive health care to all Americans with no increase in total costs. However, the vast health care resources now squandered on bureaucracy (mostly due to efforts to divert costs to other payers or onto patients themselves), profits, marketing, and useless or even harmful medical interventions must be shifted to needed care.

    4. In a democracy, the public should set overall health policies. Personal medical decisions must be made by patients with their caregivers, not by corporate or government bureaucrats; and

    BE IT FINALLY RESOLVED, That Pride@Work supports and urges Congress to enact H.R. 3200 and that a copy of this resolution be sent to The Speaker of the House and the President of the Senate.

  • WHEREAS, America is experiencing a severe nursing crisis that will intensify as baby boomers age and the need for health care grows; and

    WHEREAS, There are not enough nurses to do what needs to be done on any given shift and the nurses who are on duty are exhausted and stressed; and

    WHEREAS, The environment in which nurses work is a breeding ground for medical errors which will continue to threaten patient safety until substantially reformed; and

    WHEREAS, A 2007 study in the American Journal of Nursing found that among new Registered Nurses: 64% work overtime regularly; 66% work 12-hour shifts; and 32% say that three or more days a week, they have more work than can be done; and

    WHEREAS, 37% of Registered Nurses who leave their first job, cite stressful working conditions as the reason; and

    WHEREAS, There is a bill currently in Congress that could go a long way toward improving the working conditions in our hospitals, and at the same time, greatly improve the quality of care that patients receive; and

    WHEREAS, H.R. 2273, the Nurse Staffing Standards for Patient Safety and Quality Act of 2273 and will require hospitals to develop staffing plans and implement minimum Registered Nurse to patient staffing ratios; and

    WHEREAS, The California Nurses’ Association found that after the enactment of California’s staffing ratio law in 2004, the number of actively licensed nurses in California increased by 60%; now

    THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, That Pride@Work goes on record in support of H.R. 2273; and

    THEREFORE BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, That Pride@Work respectfully asks the leadership in the House of Representatives to act on H.R. 2273 before the end of the currently legislative session; and

    THEREFORE BE IT FINALLY RESOLVED, That a copy of this resolution be sent to Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and Chairman Henry Waxman.

  • Workers, their families and their unions are waging an increasingly difficult struggle to win or to keep good health care coverage.  Almost every union at every contract deadline must battle and sacrifice merely to sustain health care benefits. The rising costs of health insurance are blocking workers’ progress in wages and other areas. All of our unions face a healthcare crisis.

    But the crisis extends far beyond union members. More than 46 million people in the U. S. are currently without health insurance, more than 75 million went without for some length of time within the last two years, and millions more have inadequate coverage or are at risk of losing coverage.  People of color, immigrants and women are denied care at disproportionate rates, while the elderly and many others must choose between necessities and life sustaining drugs and care.  Unorganized workers have either no or inadequate coverage.  The Institute of Medicine has found that each year more than 18,000 in the U. S. die because they had no health insurance.

    While we in the United States spend approximately twice as much of our gross domestic product as other developed nations on health care, we remain the only industrialized country without universal coverage.  Our problem worsens each year as insurance costs increase and as gradual solutions have failed to make a dent in the problem.

    The U. S. health system continues to treat health care as a commodity distributed according to the ability to pay, rather than as a social service to be distributed according to human need.  Insurance companies and HMOs compete not by increasing quality or lowering costs, but by avoiding covering those whose needs are greatest.

    Economic necessity and moral conscience compel us to seek a better way.  Congressman John Conyers, Jr. (D-MI) has introduced HR 676, the United States National Health Insurance Act, also called Expanded and Improved Medicare for All. This single-payer health care program proposes an effective mechanism for controlling skyrocketing health costs while covering all 46 million uninsured Americans.

    HR 676 would cover every person in the U. S. for all necessary medical care including prescription drugs, hospital, surgical, outpatient services, primary and preventive care, emergency services, dental, mental health, home health, physical therapy, rehabilitation (including for substance abuse), vision care, chiropractic and long term care.  HR 676 ends deductibles and co-payments.  HR 676 would save billions annually by eliminating high overhead and profits of the private health insurance industry and HMOs. The transition to national health insurance would apply the savings from administration and profits to expanded and improved coverage for all.

    A single payer program as provided by HR 676 is the only affordable option for universal, comprehensive coverage.

    Resolved:

    That Pride At Work wholeheartedly endorses Congressman Conyers’ bill HR 676, “Expanded and Improved Medicare for All,” a single payer health care program.

    That Pride At Work will work with other unions and community groups to build a groundswell of popular support and action for single payer universal health care and HR 676 until we make what is morally right for our nation into what is also politically possible.

    That Pride At Work will send a copy of this resolution to Congressman Conyers, to all members of the U.S. House and Senate, to the AFL-CIO Executive Council, and to the news media.