House Health Reform Bill Would Cover Millions—Affordably
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Today, U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi unveiled a comprehensive reform bill that would guarantee coverage for 96 percent of the U.S. public.
Among other things, the bill, H.R. 3962, includes a public option, expands Medicaid coverage to families who earn up to 150 percent of the federal poverty level, provides help for middle-class families to get coverage and sets tough new rules for insurers, making sure that no one can be denied care or be rejected from coverage because of pre-existing conditions. It’s fairly funded through a combination of employer responsibility, cost savings and a surtax on the extremely wealthy—and does not get its funding from taxes on middle-class workers’ benefits. All that, and it will reduce the deficit in the long term.
It’s the kind of change America voted for last fall. You can read the full bill here.
Shuler in Oregon: The Sharks We Defeated Are Still Circling
At the Oregon AFL-CIO convention, AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Liz Shuler, who got her start organizing in Oregon, spoke yesterday to hundreds of delegates from across the state and encouraged them to start now on educating and mobilizing union members. Shuler told delegates:
Last year, you helped transform our country. And everything you did in 2008, we must do from now to 2010—and here’s why. The sharks you defeated last November are still circling out there. They’ve never given up. They’re just as vicious now, and they want to destroy everything you won. Don’t let them do it.
You have a big job next year: electing a governor who’s pro-working family, pro-union, pro-us; making sure we re-elect the representatives who stand up for what’s right; and beating back the two initiatives that our right-wing pals have dreamed up for 2010….So it’s not too early to get ready.
Scariest Pumpkin Ever
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Halloween is a time for scary things: Ghosts, vampires, witches…you know the list. But in the real world there are things far more frightening than fangs and broomsticks that somehow never get etched onto a pumpkin.
You can chase a vampire away with some garlic or fire, but if the vampire bites you, you’ll be in real trouble. Not from the bite, but from the lack of health care to fix it.
Can you even imagine the reasons your insurance company would come up with to deny that claim? Suddenly, having friends who wear black capes would be a pre-existing condition and blood transfusions would be an experimental procedure.
That’s why we at Working America are hosting the “scariest pumpkin ever” online exhibit. In honor of the season, we decided to put something truly terrifying onto pumpkins: health insurance companies. (Or their logos, anyway.)
We’ve gotten started with a few pumpkins, but we want more. You can see a few more pumpkins here—and while you’re there, print out a stencil to make your own truly scary pumpkin and take action supporting health care reform so that next Halloween, insurance companies aren’t a real-life nightmare for so many of us.
TODAY: National Call-in Day for Health Care Reform
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Do you want real health care reform that provides affordable and quality care for all?
Then join today’s National Call-In Day for Health Care Reform and tell your two senators that we can’t wait any longer for health care reform that:
* Controls costs and doesn’t tax our benefits.
* Provides guaranteed coverage to all Americans.
* Includes a public health insurance plan option.
* Holds insurance companies accountable.
* Requires all employers to pay their fair share.
You don’t even have to let your fingers do the walking—we’ll dial for you.
Place your call by clicking the “Call” button at the bottom of the box above. You will be asked to provide information so we will know to which senators we should place your call.
Choose which of your senators you want to call first. Once you click, you’ll see some simple talking points to help you to know what to say. Shortly after, we will call you, play a short message and connect you directly—all at no cost to you (unless your phone service provider charges you for incoming calls, you may be charged for the call time).
Then hit the green “go back” arrow and call your other senator.
If you would rather call later and dial yourself, call 1-877-323-5246.
Health Care Reform Needs Public Option—Not Band-Aid
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Today, union and health care activists around the country are raising their voices against the private health insurance companies’ mutlimillion-dollar campaign to block health care reform. In dozens of rallies and demonstrations they are saying: “Big Insurance: We’re sick of it.”
Union members are joining a march on Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association’s Portland, Ore., headquarters. In a letter to Blue Cross President Scott Serota, Oregon AFL-CIO President Tom Chamberlain calls on the company to cease opposition to a public health insurance option and stop the use of union members’ premium payments to fund lobbying against a public option.
Union members in Oregon have spent too many years at the bargaining table knowing that they have to choose between bargaining for better wages, or maintaining their healthcare. This is unsustainable; healthcare reform with true cost controls is necessary. For union members to now see their healthcare dollars spent lobbying against the reform they support is absolutely unacceptable.
Union Plus Story Booth: Union Members Tell Their Stories
One exhibit that’s drawing a lot of interest at the AFL-CIO Convention is the Union Plus “Tell Your Union Story” booth, where union members are videotaped telling how or why they got involved with union activities or what a union means to them.
The booth is sponsored by Union Privilege, which provides consumer benefits to members and retirees of participating unions.
“We want to help tell the union story,” says Jon Ross, vice president of Union Privilege.
So many people don’t know the union story. We want to help spread the word. Every union member has a story about why they became a union activist or how unions help their community. We wanted to capture that.
We serve union members all the time and the booth is another service.
Union Political Mobilization Has Turned Around America
Four years ago, an anti-worker majority in Congress and the Bush administration were conducting a corporate-funded assault on workers and the programs that supported America. They were implementing policies that steered the economy toward the very wealthiest and leaving everyone else behind. What a difference four years makes. Now in the White House, we have Barack Obama, the first African American president and a supporter of unions and working families and pro-worker majorities in both houses of Congress.
Today, at the AFL-CIO Convention, attendees got a chance to examine the successes of union political mobilization and look forward to continuing the fight to elect pro-worker candidates and passing a pro-worker legislative agenda. Delegates adopted a strong resolution in support of continuing an active political program.
Working America: Mobilizing and Winning
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As AFL-CIO President John Sweeney noted yesterday, one of the most important developments in the union movement over the past few years is the introduction of Working America, the community affiliate of the AFL-CIO that organizes, educates and mobilizes people across the country who don’t have a union at work.
Today at the 2009 AFL-CIO Convention, union members honored Working America and thanked Working America staff for their tireless efforts to reach out and sign up—in less than six years—more than 3 million members, who are getting critical education on the issues that matter.
Working America regional director Jenn Jannon and assistant national field director Tahir Duckett led a delegation of Working America staff onto the convention stage and explained the great successes they’ve had across the country. Said Duckett:
Working America organizers fan out in working class neighborhoods across the country every single night. And in those neighborhoods, we talk one on one to every household that doesn’t have the benefit of a union on the job, and we give them an alternative point of view on the economy—one that is not shaped by right-wingers or the corporate media.
AFL-CIO President John Sweeney: Solidarity Is Our Way of Life
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| AFL-CIO President John Sweeney gives his final keynote to convention delegates. |
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| Pennsylvania AFL-CIO President Bill George (above) and former Pittsburgh Steeler Franco Harris (below) help open the AFL-CIO Convention. |
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With the convening of the 26th AFL-CIO Constitutional Convention this afternoon in Pittsburgh, nearly 2,000 delegates, alternates and guests took part in the formal opening ceremony and paid tribute to retiring AFL-CIO President John Sweeney. Following greetings by Pennsylvania AFL-CIO President Bill George, Jack Shea, president of the Allegheny County [Pittsburgh] Labor Council, and former Pittsburgh Steelers player Franco Harris, AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Richard Trumka welcomed everyone, noting how great it is to be in Pittsburgh, “the city of bridges.”
And bridges are the perfect illustration of what we’ll be talking about over the next few days. Bridges that connect diverse people, diverse unions, diverse communities and diverse nations. Bridges to cross together, so we can turn around America….Some of the bridges America needs have been burnt—destroyed by years of a rampant corporate agenda embraced by the Bush administration. It’s hard to overstate just how damaging those years have been.
Our unions and the workers we represent are suffering in a historic collapse. But at the very same time, we have historic opportunities. New bridges with a new administration, a new Congress and rivers of hope flowing through the people of our country. Our Convention has a theme for today: We are many, we are one.
That’s our power—and it’s our joy.
Low-Income Young Workers Hard Hit
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While all young workers face a tougher economic reality in 2009 than they did in 1999, low-income workers face particularly tough economic challenges.
The new AFL-CIO and Working America report, “Young Workers a Lost Decade,” chronicles a future of economic doubts and a present of lower-paid jobs, fewer benefits and longer hours than under-35 workers faced a decade ago.
More than half of all young workers live on the low-income end of the wage scale, earning less than $30,000 a year. Three quarters of those workers say prices are rising faster than their incomes, and seven out of 10 say they do not have enough money saved to cover just two months of living expenses.
If they get sick, not only are young workers likely to lose a day’s wages if they stay home, they’ll pay for health care out of their own pockets. Less than half have paid sick leave—compared to 70 percent of workers who earn more than $30,000 a year—and 44 percent do not have health insurance.
