PAGE 26 | August 18, 2017 | NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS
AFL-CIO Executive Council backs ‘Medicare for All’
By Mark Gruenberg
Press Associates Inc.
SILVER SPRING, Md. (PAI)—
A strong endorsement of gov-
ernment-run single-payer
Medicare for All as the ultimate
solution to U.S. health care ills
highlighted position statements
from the summer AFL-CIO Ex-
ecutive Council meeting.
The council’s health care
statement, issued from the three-
day meeting in late July at the
George Meany Center in the
Washington suburb of Silver
Spring, Md., first denounced
congressional Republicans for
trashing the Affordable Care
Act.
“If Congress and President
Trump are truly interested in im-
proving health care for working
people, there are many things
they could do,” the fed’s state-
ment said.
Those Affordable Care Act
fixes include tackling “hol-
lowed-out coverage with de-
ductibles that are far too high for
the typical person,” reining in
prescription drug prices, and re-
peal of the “Cadillac Tax” on
high-cost health plans, many of
which unions have negotiated in
contracts.
Lawmakers should also ex-
plore patient-centered alterna-
tives to the private insurance
system — with single-payer
Medicare for All topping the list,
the statement adds.
“Our core goal is to move ex-
peditiously toward a single-
payer system, like Medicare for
All, that retains a role for work-
ers’ health plans and in which
access to quality, affordable
health care is indeed a right for
everyone in this country,” it de-
clares.
Even as the council blasted
the GOP maneuvering to repeal
the ACA, that effort went down
in flames in the U.S. Senate.
Three Republicans — Arizona’s
John McCain, Alaska’s Lisa
Murkowski, and Maine’s Susan
Collins — listened to their con-
“Our core goal is to
move expeditiously to-
ward a single-payer sys-
tem, like Medicare for All,
that retains a role for
workers’ health plans
and in which access to
quality, affordable health
care is indeed a right for
everyone in this country,”
it declares.”
— National AFL-CIO
Executive Council
stituents and defied the party
line by opposing all versions of
the so-called ACA “replace-
ment” bill.
Together with all 46 Democ-
rats and both independents, their
three votes were enough to sink
the legislation. The other 49 Re-
publicans voted for it.
Endorsement of single-payer
government-paid health care as
the ultimate goal of the labor
movement marked a new phase
in labor’s crusade to reform the
U.S. health care system.
At least 20 unions have cam-
paigned for single-payer for
years. The AFL-CIO endorsed it
as a potential objective in prior
health care statements.
In past years, though, Con-
gress — and even its Democrats
— turned a deaf ear to calls for
single-payer. Former Rep. Den-
nis Kucinich (D-Ohio) pushed a
single-payer option through one
committee during construction
of the ACA, but his plan was
later dropped.
And a push for single-payer
in California, the nation’s largest
state, has been stymied by the
Democratic State Assembly
speaker. Gov. Jerry Brown, a
Democrat, also questions how
the state would pay for it.
But now the AFL-CIO wants
to revive the drive. And it may
be gaining public support, as a
recent opinion poll shows 53
percent of the public back sin-
gle-payer.
Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., re-
cently reported that even his Re-
publican constituents were ask-
ing him about — and backing
—single-payer.
The AFL-CIO’s other Execu-
tive Council statements:
■ Denounced the Trump Administration’s
rollback of government regulations —
including dumping of a rule requiring full
disclosure from union-busters
■ Reiterated pro-worker goals for
negotiating a “new NAFTA”
■ Blasted the denial of voting rights through
so-called Voter ID laws and said the
stacked “election fraud” commission Trump
named is probing a problem that doesn’t
exist
■ Defended the rights of undocumented
people, including more than 1 million
covered under the Obama Administration’s
program for protecting teenagers and
young adults brought to the U.S. as
children, as well as other workers under
“Temporary Protected Status”