The Labor Campaign for Single Payer Healthcare

When activists from UNITEHERE—the union of hospitality industry workers—were recently lobbying in Washington DC in an effort to get relief from some of the provisions of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) that are undermining the hard won healthcare coverage of the union’s mostly low-wage membership, they were told by an aide to New Jersey Senator Menendez that, “Labor needs to regress to the mean.”

Of course, under the laws of mathematics, if you only reduce those factors that exceed a mean, the mean itself constantly adjusts downward. In that context, another term for “regress to the mean” is “race to the bottom”.

For many workers, the ACA is having that exact effect. UNITEHERE’s recently released report Making Inequality Worse documents how Obamacare, supported by many unions as a means of leveling the playing field between union and non-union workers, is having the perverse and opposite effect of increasing inequality.

[Read more...]

The Gottfried-Perkins Bill got a shot in the arm on February 17 when two large statewide unions-1199 SEIU and CWA District 1–and the Working Families Party announced their support on February 17. “The passage of Obamacare represented a huge advance in this country,” said CWA District 1 Political Director Bob Master, “but it is not enough.”

The Gottfried-Perkins Bill would establish New York Health: a publicly funded universal healthcare plan for all New Yorkers with no premiums, deductibles or co-pays. 73 out of 150 state assembly members have endorsed it. The Bill faces a more difficult path in the state senate where a small group of renegade Democrats have joined with the Republican minority to block progressive initiatives.

The new union endorsers join long-time single-payer supporting unions in New York State including the New York State Nurses Association, the Public Employees Federation and Local One IATSE. “As tireless advocates of patient care, registered nurses of New York state are proud to stand with Assembly Health Committee Chair, Richard Gottfried, state Senator Bill Perkins, and countless other patient advocates in support of the New York health bill,” said Lisa Blodgett, a registered nurse and member of the New York Nurse’s Association.”There’s a health care crisis throughout our state and the only solution is a single payer system that guarantees quality health care to all.”

[Read more...]