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AFL-CIO Does for Healthcare What MoveOn Does for Peace
Remember when Moveon polled its members on whether they wanted Pelosi's plan to continue the war or nothing, neglecting to include the Lee Amendment option? Well, the AFL-CIO is NOT going to be out done:
Put Single Payer in the Survey!
By Andy Coates, MD
Steward in the Public Employees Federation (PEF), AFL-CIO,
A statewide New York union affiliated with AFT and SEIU
In an attempt to find out what union members think about the health care crisis and its solution, the AFL-CIO recently asked union members and supporters to complete a health care survey.
http://www.aflcio.org/issues/healthcare/survey/index_survey.cfm?source=h...
The problem with the survey is that it does not present the full range of opinions union members have, and nowhere in the survey is single payer, or Medicare for All, or HR 676 even mentioned as an option.
Question #21 in the survey offers only variations on keeping for-profit insurance companies in the center of health care. There is no choice to go to a single payer, publicly funded system that covers all medically necessary care as in HR 676.
Everyone knows that single payer is supported by many within labor. Over 500 union organizations, including 39 state AFL-CIO’s and 126 Central Labor Councils, have endorsed HR 676 which is co-sponsored by 76 members in the House of Representatives. Recently, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, a friend of labor, introduced SB 703, a single payer bill, in the Senate.
Since a large section of unions and union members supports a single payer
solution to the health care crisis, it is unfair to construct a survey
that completely ignores opinions from single payer advocates.
The AFL-CIO has a crucial role to play in the health care debate now
unfolding. It is important that those who speak for labor in this debate
are able to reflect the vital and growing single payer sentiment within
our union movement.
We encourage you to write President Sweeney, jsweeney@aflcio.org, and urge
him to include the single payer choice in the survey seeking the views of
union members on health care. You could also fax President Sweeney at:
(202) 508-6946. #30#
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
04/26/09
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I keep getting email from MoveOn inviting me to support Barack Obama's health care plan. Maybe I'm missing something, but MoveOn seems to be equally complicit in ignoring the single-payer option.
missing anything
would help Corporate America stay in control of healthcare cost. And it is very clear that they don't do anything that isn't GREEDY. Asking Corp. Amer. to sacrifice anything is taboo in America. They own too many congressional votes to even consider asking their support for the public's benefit.
I feel sure that's why the President isn't supporting a singlepayer system. It would be too simple to implement such a program, for the betterment of the people, but, Corporate America would not be in charge any longer. There's not much of a chance of doing something that would benefit we'uns.