NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS |
October 20, 2017 | PAGE 3
...Medicare For All
From Page 1
Amy Chesbrough is a registered nurse at the Portland VA Medical Center, a
member of American Federation of Government Employees, and a believer
in universal health care. On Aug. 23, she and 100 others protested Oregon
Congressman Greg Walden for his support of a bill that would have left 22
million more Americans uninsured. But that’s in addition to the 28 million
who are still uninsured even under the Affordable Care Act. As the AFL-CIO
said in a July 26 statement, “although the ACA has made it possible for many
more people to buy comprehensive health plans from insurance companies,
it has not guaranteed everyone could afford the health care they need. In-
stead, many people face steep deductibles, copayments and coinsurance
that create overwhelming barriers to care.”
In 2017, premiums reached an
average of $1,564 a month for
employer-sponsored health in-
surance that covers an employee
and family, according to the
Kaiser Family Foundation.
Enter Vermont Sen. Bernie
Sanders, who called for extend-
ing Medicare to all Americans
during his 2016 campaign for
president. Sanders lost the Dem-
ocratic primary, but today polls
say he’s the most popular politi-
cian in America, and his
Medicare for All bill has more
co-sponsors than ever. When
Sanders introduced his Medicare
for All bill in 2013, not a single
U.S. senator co-sponsored it. In-
troduced again Sept. 13, his bill
had 16 cosponsors. Meanwhile,
the House version, introduced
once again this year by Conyers,
has 120 Congressional cospon-
sors, up from 62 in 2015.
Polls show 53 to 60 percent
of Americans are now in favor
of Medicare for All, compared
to 23 percent who oppose the
idea. The percentage in favor
MEDICARE FOR ALL CO-SPONSORS:
U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley
U.S. Rep. Earl Blumenauer
U.S. Rep. Suzanne Bonamici
U.S. Rep. Peter Defazio
has been steadily increasing for
the last 20 years.
Medicare for All is not ex-
pected to pass while Republi-
cans control the House and Sen-
ate, but it could if Democrats
win back Congressional majori-
ties and the White House.
Organized labor, which was
instrumental in passing Medi-
care in the first place, has long
supported its expansion into a
universal program. More than a
dozen international unions and
hundreds of local unions and
central labor councils have en-
dorsed the concept of Medicare
for All. And the national AFL-
CIO Executive Council reiter-
ated the labor federation’s sup-
port for it in a July 26, 2017,
statement: “Our core goal … is
to move expeditiously toward a
single-payer system, 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.”
The Sanders and Conyers
bills don’t say what would hap-
pen to union-sponsored multi-
employer health trusts that
cover more than 10 million
union members and their de-
pendents. In Canada, where
everyone is covered by public
health insurance programs ad-
ministered at the provincial
level, unions negotiate with em-
ployers to provide supplemental
health benefits.
Unions have fought hard to
secure health insurance benefits
for members, but the ever-in-
creasing burden of paying for
them has become the number
one source of conflict with em-
ployers. Health insurance also
eats up employer resources that
could otherwise go to raises or
other benefits. Taking health
care off the bargaining table
could relieve employers of a
burden that their foreign com-
petitors don’t have.
How the Sanders bill would work
■ Lower the Medicare eligibility age, in phases: Year 1 to age 45; Year 2 to 55; Year 3 to 35; Year 4 to everyone
■ Expand Medicare coverage to include dental and vision care
■ End the prohibition on the government using its bargaining power to get better drug prices from pharmaceutical companies
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