from AFLCIO: Labor Council Warns Congress on Benefits Tax

Labor Council Warns Congress on Benefits Tax

The resolution below was passed by unanimous vote at the regular meeting
of Delegates to the South Bay AFL-CIO Labor Council in San Jose,
California 2/22/10.
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"We support the Social Insurance Model for Health Care Reform as
articulated in Resolution 34 at the recent AFL-CIO Convention and bring
attention especially to its final seven paragraphs."

"We feel additionally, that members of Congress who would touch our
hard-won, collectively negotiated health care benefits with new taxation,
will burn their fingers."

The last seven paragraphs of resolution 34, adopted at the September
AFL-CIO Convention are below. The resolution was titled THE SOCIAL
INSURANCE MODEL FOR HEALTH CARE REFORM

"One concrete plan that meets the test of comprehensive, universal health
coverage would build on our nation's successful universal health coverage
plan for seniors: Medicare.

In its 40-year history, Medicare has delivered substantial advances for
the health care of older Americans and people with disabilities. Medicare
has guaranteed coverage, made health care more affordable, included a form
of shared financial responsibility, significantly reduced administrative
costs compared with those of private plans and has been the largely
unheralded financer of America's medical science advances. Medicare also
has been a leader in advancing quality care and improvements in health
care service delivery in the united States.

Such an approach would require updating and expanding Medicare benefits to
fit the working population and children, as well as negotiating prices
with physicians and providers that families—and the country—can afford. It
would encourage innovation in health care services and medical technology.
Employers' responsibility for health care financing would be broadly and
equitably shared, substantially reducing burdens on all businesses and
reducing disadvantages currently faced in the global marketplace. In
building on Medicare to move toward a universal program, we can find a
practical, achievable and affordable solution to our country's health care
crisis.

The experience of Medicare (and of nearly every other industrialized
country) shows the most cost-effective and equitable way to provide
quality health care is through a single-payer system. Our nation should
provide a single high standard of comprehensive care for all.

We reiterate our longstanding call for congressional leaders to unite
behind such a plan. There have been a number of single-payer bills
introduced in this Congress and previous Congresses, including H.R. 676
introduced by Rep. Conyers and bills introduced by Sen. Kennedy and Reps.
Stark and Dingell. The single- payer approach is one the AFL-CIO supports
and that merits dedicated congressional support and enactment.

Whatever the outcome of the current debate over health care reform in the
111th Congress, the task of establishing health care as a human right, not
a privilege, will still lay before us. We continue to believe the social
insurance model should be our goal, and we will continue to fight for
reforms that take us in that direction."


Distributed by:
All Unions Committee For Single Payer Health Care--HR 676
c/o Nurses Professional Organization (NPO)
1169 Eastern Parkway, Suite 2218
Louisville, KY 40217
(502) 636 1551
Email: nursenpo@aol.com
http://unionsforsinglepayerHR676.org