DO YOU HAVE MEDICAL INSURANCE AND
PRESCRIPTION PROBLEMS... WE WANT
TO HEAR ABOUT THEM SO WE MAY HELP RESOLVE THEM.....Click
Here For More.
Bulletin: If there are any major changes in
your "LIFE": Birth; Death; Adoption; Dependent to Non-Dependent. YOU MUST NOTIFY HR
about it, in order for your insurance to reflect those changes...
Michael Belsky to sign up new and
service current Clients during the
IDAHO
AFL-CIO STATE CONVENTION
When:
June 13, 14 & 15.
If you
missed him and wish to contact Mike then, Click
U.S. Health Care
Costs Per Family More Than Doubled In Nine
Years, Report Finds
May 18, 2011
U.S. healthcare is so expensive that
records are broken even when cost
increases slow.
According to a new report by
Milliman, a global consulting
and actuarial firm, the total cost
of healthcare for the average family
of four, if covered by a preferred
provider organization, is now a
record $19,393.
That might be only 7.3 percent
higher than last year's average cost
of $18.074, which is the smallest
year-over-year increase in almost a
decade. But it's also the
highest year-over-year increase
in total dollars spent per family at
$1,319.
Trends over the last decade more
completely illustrate the toll taken
on the average American by rising
healthcare costs.
"In 2002, American families had
healthcare costs of $9,235, and
those costs have now doubled in
fewer than nine years," said
Lorraine Mayne, Milliman principal
and consulting actuary, in a press
release. "As costs continue to grow
-- and even as the cost trend
decelerates -- the total cost of
care for American families
constitutes a larger and larger
portion of the household budget."
Of that $1,319 increase,
employers were paid for 48.6 percent
of the increase, while the
additional 51.6 percent was the
responsibility of employees.
That's only slightly different
from trends of the last five years.
Over that period, employers have
absorbed $3,023 in additional
healthcare costs, employees
themselves absorbing only slightly
less, at $2,988.
Take away costs paid by employers, and the employee's share of costs has still doubled. In 2010, the average employee paid $8,008 for his family's healthcare, up from $3,634 in 2002.
Corporations, Federal ‘Reform’ Keep Shifting
Healthcare Costs to Workers
Despite its
$14.2 billion in profits last year untouched by
federal income taxes, General Electric is now
demanding that its unionized workers accept a new
high-deductible “Health Choice” health savings
account plan.
GE’s demands are particularly obscene because it
is sitting on $25 billion in savings and is
threatening to close more U.S. plants, i.e. move
more jobs to Mexico, China and elsewhere. And
they're particularly dangerous because
GE is modeling bad behavior for other
corporations to emulate.
As UE-GE Conference Secretary Steve Tormey
has said, “Nobody is more symbolic of the
assault on workers than General Electric." The
United Electrical
workers union, one of a handful of unions now
negotiating with GE, warned its members:
...numerous studies of these high-deductible
plans...reveal that employees forced into
plans like Health Choice are “significantly
more likely to
avoid, skip, or delay healthcare because
of costs” than those with more comprehensive
insurance. ...
What GE is really saying
with Health Choice is that medical expenses
are no longer primarily their
responsibility, but that of GE employees.
But GE is only the latest entrant among employers
trying to establish a new healthcare normal by
thrusting heavy additional costs onto the backs of
working families. And the much-trumpeted federal
healthcare "reform" legislation may actually
exacerbate this race to the bottom.
(Of course, public employers—like the state of
Wisconsin, led by labor's arch enemy Gov. Scott
Walker—have also been pushing to make public workers
take up even more of the burden of healthcare costs.
This despite the fact that, as David Cay Johnston
has pointed out without managing to dent mainstream
media coverage, public employees have always been
paying 100 percent of their benefit costs. When they
gained improvements in health and retirement
benefits, they had to sacrifice on wage increases.)
How federal healthcare 'reform' helps
drives the race to the bottom
The race to the bottom is, unfortunately, likely
to be intensified as we get closer to fully
implementing the Affordable Care Act in 2014. In
fact, the ACA may well tend to establish a
bare-bones, high-deductible policy as the new norm.
The taxation of perversely mis-labeled “Cadillac”
benefits has the very real potential of putting the
squeeze on union-won healthcare benefits, especially
in high-cost states.
Despite the efforts of AFL-CIO Richard Trumka and
others to limit the damage created when the Obama
administration suddenly adopted John McCain’s
regressive idea of taxing better benefit plans to
fund expanded healthcare coverage for the uninsured,
it may not take long before fast-rising medical
inflation pushes the dollar value of union-won
health benefits up to the Cadillac level, as IUE-CWA
Local 201 President
Jeff Crosby has noted.
As Dr. David
Himmelstein and Steffie Woolhandler wrote
recently,
The insurance required under the federal ACA
is no better than Massachusetts’ bare-bones
plans. And as employers emulate this
inadequate coverage, the race to the bottom
leaves an increasing number of Americans
UNDER-insured. Public workers are just the
latest group to see their coverage
downsized.
What used to be called “health
insurance” is now labeled “Cadillac
coverage” – and reserved for those who drive
Mercedes.
Himmelstein and Woolhandler remind us that the
Democrats’ ACA plan was based on the Massachusetts
model passed in 2006 with Gov. Mitt Romeny's
signature, and whose “achievements” are much less
than splendid. Bankruptcies caused by catastrophic
medical costs, which account for over half of all
bankruptcies, are still rising in Massachusetts,
they state:
While only 4 percent of the state’s
residents remain uninsured, much of the new
coverage is so skimpy that serious illness
leaves families with crushing medical bills.
For instance, the cheapest (and most
commonly purchased) coverage available to a
56-year-old Bostonian through the state’s
health insurance exchange costs $5,616. Yet,
if you’re sick, the policy doesn’t start
paying bills until you’ve paid a $2,000
deductible. And even after that you’re
responsible for 20 percent of the next
$15,000 in medical expenses.
Insurers try blackmail
By basing itself on the Massachusetts plan which
keeps for-profit insurers as the parasitic middlemen
at the core of the healthcare system, the ACA
sacrificed the potential for comprehensive,
high-quality benefits covered from the first
dollar.
This potential has been underscored in the fight
over retaining ACA’s requirement that 80
percent of premium revenue be used by insurers
to provide healthcare and improve quality, freeing
up 20 percent for profit, bureaucratic overhead, and
sales and promotion.
No less than nine states are seeking waivers from
the 80 percent requirement, falling prey to
insurers’ blackmail demands. Insurers are
threatening to stop selling individual coverage in a
number of states unless they can spend, in several
cases, just 65 percent on paying for healthcare and
quality improvements.
Both the states and the Obama administration are
petrified by this coercive technique. The Obama
administration’s timid
mentality was revealed in this statement by
Robert Laszewski, a consultant to the health care
industry and a former insurance executive. "The last
thing the Obama administration wants is the Des
Moines Register writing about 500 people who
lost their health insurance in Iowa because of the
Obama health plan," he chortled.
Singe-payer destiny?
The emerging situation is not pretty. Major
corporations and right-wing state governments are
fighting furiously to shift more costs onto workers
and their families. Instead of setting a new, higher
standard, ACA effectively serves to reinforce a new
lower standard of “acceptable” coverage. Given this,
the limitations of the ACA may become very obvious
very quickly both to the public and Congress.
There may even be a possibility that that the
essential need for maximum-strength single-payer or
“Medicare for all” healthcare system—unburdened by
for-profit insurers—will become evident much faster
than most have imagined. (Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.)
and Rep. Jim McDermott (D-Wash.)
introduced single-payer bills in Congress this
week; Vermont has now passed its own single-payer
system into law.)
Himmelstein and Woolhandler make the case
concisely:
While the ACA can’t live up to its
“affordable care” moniker, a single-payer
reform could save $400 billion annually on
administrative costs, enough to offer every
American first-dollar, comprehensive
coverage. While U.S. insurers fight tooth
and nail against the 20 percent limit on
overhead, Canada’s single-payer program runs
for 1 percent.
Health Reform: A Response to Inflated Health
Care Costs in U.S.
A look at the per
capita health costs - U.S. compared to other
OECD nations in 2000. Of course, since the
year 2000 these costs have ballooned even
further.
Are your Out-of-Pocket too high?
If any
USW member is paying what seems to be too much "out-of-pocket" expenses, you
need to contact Rita Cannon at #1346. If no progress is made, contact a
Steward or Standing Committee member (click).
August 18,
2010
Today
the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) took a step toward
ending the health insurance companies' stranglehold on our health care. The top
state insurance regulators from across the nation voted to put patient care
above insurance company profits.
This decision moves us closer to more affordable health care for families and
businesses and will help ensure that the new health care law fulfills its
promise.
Advocates have battled every step of the way to hold the insurance companies
accountable, and we will continue to do so.
Many challenges remain before we can declare victory in the Medical Loss Ratio (MLR)
fight. Pivotal aspects of the technical rules discussed today in Seattle remain
unresolved, including crucial decisions on how to treat federal taxes and
agent/broker fees. The NAIC still has work to do, and it should finish its
deliberations soon so the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) can
swiftly develop final rules that take effect on schedule for 2011 health plans.
Progress like this is the result of work and commitment by activists like you.
Thank you,
Ethan Rome
Executive Director
Health Care for America Now
While more and more working Americans can’t afford
health care, big insurance CEOs are getting fat pay
increases—and raising health insurance premiums.
Between 2007 and 2009, more than 25 percent of Americans
reduced their use of health care—two to five times the
rate than in Britain, Canada, France and Germany,
according to the National
Bureau of Economic Research. Here’s one big reason
why: Nearly 15 percent of Americans are uninsured, while
the other countries have near-universal coverage. Read
the report, “The Economic Crisis and Medical Care
Usage,”
here.
Yet, while Americans are forced to cut back on health
care, the insurance companies are raising premiums and
using the money to lavish exorbitant salaries on CEOs
and are paying huge fees to lobbyists to convince
regulators to soften the rules so that they can make
even more money.
CEOs of the nation’s health care companies
made nearly $1 billion last year—enough to pay for
every resident of Philadelphia, Dallas and Minneapolis
combined to go to their doctor for an office visit,
according to a
report by Health Care for America Now (HCAN).
Since 2007, the insurance industry has spent at least
$769 million to lobby policymakers and elected officials
to influence health care legislation and regulation. Now
its training its sights on the state regulators who are
considering important rules setting minimum levels of
insurance company spending on patient care. The new
rules could rein in profits, CEO pay, lobbying costs and
administrative expenses.
So when more than 1,000 lobbyists and health care
executives swarmed all over the National Association of
Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) meeting in Seattle last
weekend, some 150 activists from the Washington State
HCAN and their supporters fought back.
They demonstrated outside and then went inside the
conference center to deliver “lobbyist disinfectant
kits” to the regulators so they could defend themselves
against the lobbyists.
The kits included face masks to prevent the inhalation
of lobbists’ airborne lies, hand sanitizer for frequent
clean ups and deodorant soap for anyone whose encounters
with these enablers of corporate greed felt like they
needed a shower. They even set up a triage center at the
picket line to treat those most heavily exposed to
lobbyists’ dirty tricks.
Talking Points:
Americans Will See Immediate Benefits As a Result of Health Reform
·The legislation passed last night is a
victory for American families, for seniors,
for workers and small businesses – for Americans who deserve the
security of knowing that in this country, neither illness nor accident
should endanger the American dream.
·The legislation passed last night brings
down health care costs for American families and small businesses,
expands coverage to millions of Americans and ends the worst practices
of insurance companies. And it begins to do so this year.
·As a result of this bill, Americans will
begin to see significant benefits take effect this year, with other
important reforms following shortly after.
This bill will immediately begin to
lower health care costs for American families and small businesses.
oIn 2010, small businesses that choose to
offer coverage will begin to receive tax credits of up to 35 percent of
premiums to help make employee coverage more affordable.
oIn 2010, adults who are uninsured because of
pre-existing conditions will have access to affordable insurance through
a temporary high-risk pool.
oThis bill starts to close the Medicare Part
D donut hole in 2010 by providing a $250 rebate to Medicare
beneficiaries who hit the gap in prescription drug coverage. And
beginning in 2011, the bill institutes a 50% discount on
prescription
drugs in the donut hole.
oStarting this year, new private plans will
be required to provide free preventive care: no co-payments and no
deductibles for preventive services. And beginning January 1, 2011,
Medicare will do the same.
oIn 2010, this bill will provide help for
early retirees by creating a temporary re-insurance program to help
offset the costs of expensive premiums for employers and retirees age
55-64.
Under health reform, Americans will see
an immediate expansion of coverage.
oThis year, children with pre-existing
conditions can no longer be denied health insurance coverage. The bill
outlaws that practice for new health plans as well as grandfathered
group plans. Moving forward, no insurance company can deny a child
coverage based on his or her health.
oThis year, new health care plans and select
grandfathered plans will allow young people to remain on their parents’
insurance policy up until their 26th birthday.
oThis year, insurance companies will be
banned from dropping people from coverage when they get sick, and they
will be banned from implementing lifetime caps on coverage. This year,
restrictive annual limits on coverage will be banned for new plans and
grandfathered group health plans. Under health reform, Americans will
be ensured access to the care they need.
oThe bill increases funding for community
health centers so that nearly double the number of patients can be
treated in their community health centers over the next 5 years. The
funding begins in the next fiscal year.
oThe health reform bill will increase the
number of primary care doctors, nurses, nurse practitioners and
physician assistants through new investments.
This funding takes effect in the next fiscal year.
Health reform will immediately curb some
of the worst insurance industry practices and strengthen consumer
protections.
oBeginning this year, this bill creates a
new, independent appeals process that ensures consumers in new private
plans have access to an effective process to appeal decisions made by
their insurer.
oStarting January 1, 2011, insurers in the
individual and small group market will be required to spend 80 percent
of their premium dollars on medical services. Insurers in the large
group market will be required to spend 85 percent of their premium
dollars on medical services. Any insurers who don’t meet those
thresholds will be required to provide rebates to their policyholders.
oThis year, discrimination based on salary
will be outlawed. New group health plans will be prohibited from
establishing any eligibility rules for health care coverage that
discriminate in favor of higher-wage employees.
oThis bill holds insurance companies
accountable for unreasonable rate hikes. Starting in 2011, it helps
states require insurance companies to submit justification for all
requested premium increases. Any company with excessive or unjustified
premium increases may not be able to participate in the new health
insurance exchanges.
oBeginning this fiscal year, this bill
provides funding to states to help establish offices of health insurance
consumer assistance in order to help individuals in the process of
filing complaints or appeals against insurance companies.
March 10, 2010
Getting Started: Tools to Help Effectively Manage Your Plan
Dear Member,
Welcome to the AARP® MedicareRx Plans, insured
through UnitedHealthcare. As a new member, we at UnitedHealthcare know that you
may have questions about how your plan works. By registering at
AARPMedicareRx.com, you'll have access to the tools you need to help
effectively manage your plan. It's easy, convenient and available anytime.
Track and
manage your costs and benefits.
Register or sign in to
My Account to get started. You'll be able to learn more about the
4-stages of coverage and track how close you are to entering or leaving
the coverage gap by viewing your cost and benefits summary. You can also
see your total drug costs and True Out-of-Pocket (TrOOP) costs based on
claims processed to date.
Plus, keep track of your prescriptions, access your payment history,
view your plan materials, and even print temporary member ID cards - all
online.
Find out if you can save money
with lower-tier drugs.
Tier 1 generic drugs may help you save money. Enter the names of
your current medications into our
Look up prescription drugs tool. We'll show you if there are
lower-cost options to ask your doctor about.
If you're registered with My Account, you have convenient access to your
current medications in My Drug List.
Savings and convenience,
delivered right to your mailbox.
Sign up for the
Preferred Mail Service Pharmacy through Prescription Solutions. You
could pay as low as a $4 copay for a 90-day supply of Tier 1
medications, typically generic drugs for some plans.1
Plus, you'll get added convenience by ordering your refills
online or by phone.
Give a family member or trusted
friend access to your account.
If you'd like a family member or trusted friend to have access to your
prescription drug plan information, make them a Part D Medicare Partner.
Your Part D Medicare Partner will be able to call UnitedHealthcare
Customer Service to get information about your billing and claims, and
get answers to your general plan questions.
1 Savings apply until total amount paid for your
drugs (paid by UnitedHealthcare, you and others) reaches $2,830. However, for
members in AARP MedicareRx Saver (PDP), savings apply when the total cost of
your drugs is between $310 and $2,830.
Please do not reply directly to this automated e-mail, as this e-mail inbox is
not being monitored. To contact UnitedHealthcare, please call toll-free:
1-866-579-8772, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. TTY users, call: 711.
You have received this message because you agreed to receive information about
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Click here to unsubscribe from future e-mails on this subject.
You are not required to use the plan's Preferred Mail Service Pharmacy to obtain
a 90 day supply of your maintenance medications. You can also use a network
retail extended day supply pharmacy or a network non-preferred mail service
pharmacy, but you may pay more out-of-pocket compared to using the preferred
mail service pharmacy. You should pay the same out of pocket at a network retail
extended day supply pharmacy and a network non-preferred mail service pharmacy.
Please call UnitedHealthcare Customer Service, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week,
for up-to-date information on which pharmacies are in the network.
Your prescriptions should arrive in about seven days from the date the completed
order is received by Prescription Solutions. If Prescription Solutions needs to
contact you or your prescribing physician to clarify information on your order
or to request prescriptions from your physician, delivery may take longer. If
you prefer rush delivery, medications can be shipped overnight for an additional
charge.
Prescription Solutions will contact you if they anticipate there will be an
extended delay in the delivery of your medications. If you need your medications
immediately, Prescription Solutions can coordinate a refill with a local retail
pharmacy. Standard delivery is no charge to U.S. addresses, including U.S.
territories.
NOTE: If you are receiving extra help from Medicare, your copays may be lower or
you may have no copays.
Prescription Solutions is an affiliate of UnitedHealthcare Insurance Company and
UnitedHealthcare Insurance Company of New York.
These Medicare Prescription Drug Plans (PDPs) are insured by UnitedHealthcare
Insurance Company or UnitedHealthcare Insurance Company of New York for New York
residents (together called "UnitedHealthcare"). AARP®
MedicareRx Plans carry the AARP name, and UnitedHealthcare pays a royalty fee to
AARP for use of the AARP intellectual property. Amounts paid are used for the
general purposes of AARP and its members. AARP is not the insurer.
UnitedHealthcare contracts with the Federal government as a Medicare-approved
Part D sponsor. All decisions about prescription drugs are between you and your
physician or other health care provider.
UnitedHealthcare
P.O. Box 219952
Kansas City, MO 64121-9952
Health Reform Tax
Changes: Good Progress for
Workers; USW to Keep Working
for Better Bill
PITTSBURGH --
Leo W. Gerard, International President of the United
Steelworkers (USW) union, today said that the union is
pleased with the progress that has been made to make
health insurance reform legislation fairer for working
families.
Gerard said: “Let’s be clear, no legislation is ever
perfect. But for generations we’ve been fighting for
health care for all in the United States, and we are too
close to reaching a historical milestone on this long
journey to turn back now.
Our union and others in the labor movement have
worked hard to fight for reform that helps working
families and that will lower the cost of health care for
all Americans. It appears we’ve been able to improve
reform for all working families – not just those in a
union - with several significant changes to the proposed
excise tax on expensive health care plans. We’re pleased
with the progress but that doesn’t mean we’ll stop
working to make this bill better.”
Some of the proposed changes include:
Raising the level at which plans would be taxed
to $24,000 for a family; $8,900 for singles and
exempting dental and vision costs from these
amounts. These thresholds would be raised for
retirees 55 and older and for workers in high-risk
professions.
Raising the tax threshold for plans in certain
high-cost states as well as plans with high numbers
of women and older workers that require more
expensive plans, allowing for more gender, age and
geographic equity in health care.
Exempting plans negotiated through collective
bargaining for five years, providing critical time
for employers and employees to transition.
Allowing collectively bargained plans into the
Exchange in 2017, giving workers more bargaining
power.
The USW represents 850,000 workers in the U.S.,
Canada and Caribbean employed in the industries of
metals, rubber, chemicals, paper, oil refining and the
service sector.
British and US unions
unite to take on private healthcare bidders
by
Keith Richmond (January 7, 2010)
Workers Uniting, which describes itself as “the world’s
first global union” and is a partnership between Unite in
Britain and United Steelworkers in North America, has
launched an investigation into preferred private bidders in
the National Health Service.
After the passage of President Barack Obama’s healthcare
bill through the United States Senate, the union wants to
examine the role of private US-based healthcare providers
who are bidding for work in the NHS.
The union, worried by the creeping privatisation of the
NHS, has expressed dismay that a number of healthcare
providers listed by the Department of Health as suitable to
bid for work in the public sector have been actively
opposing the public healthcare proposals of the Obama
administration.
Gail Cartmail, assistant general secretary of Unite,
said: “Just as Workers Uniting is fighting to win healthcare
for all in the US, we are also working to prevent the
profits-over-people privatisation of the UK health system.
“That is why the global union is launching an
investigation of the preferred bidders chosen by the
Department of Health to work within the NHS. Union activists
from primary care trusts all over the UK are worried about
the creeping privatisation of NHS services.”
Carol Landry, international vice president of the USW,
said: “In the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom,
the fight boils down to essentially the same thing: winning
and protecting fair access to quality health care for all.
Millions of workers from around the world believe now is the
time to stop putting profits over people and to recognise
that healthcare is a human right, no matter where you live.”
Workers Uniting is an international partnership between
Unite, the biggest trade union in Britain and Ireland, and
USW, the biggest private sector union in the US and Canada.
It was set up by Unite joint general secretaries Tony
Woodley, Derek Simpson and USW president Leo Gerard to
challenge “the growing power of global capital”.
It represents three million workers on both sides of the
Atlantic and has been fighting to provide healthcare for all
by fixing what it calls “the broken American private
insurance based system” – the most expensive in the world –
so no American will go without healthcare, or be forced into
bankruptcy because of skyrocketing costs. Some 47 million
Americans have no coverage despite health insurance company
profits of $25 billion.
Now some of those same insurers are trying to make money
by providing services to the NHS.
Story reprinted from the Tribune of the United Kingdom.
Next
Wednesday:
National
Call-In
Blitz
for
Health
Care
Reform
Deluge
the
U.S.
House
with
phone
calls
on
Wednesday,
Jan.
13.
Demand
health
care
reform
that
works
for
working
families.
Dear
Sisters and Brothers,
Get ready: We’re taking the
fight for health care reform
to the finish line
Wednesday, Jan. 13, with a
national call-in day.
The fight for health care
reform has been long and
hard—and we’re just weeks
away from a final bill
merging the versions passed
by the House and Senate.
Both bills greatly increase
the number of people who
will have health care
coverage and end some of the
most egregious insurance
company abuses.
But the bill passed by the
House is far better for
working families—and now is
our time to tell
representatives to stick to
their guns and vote for
health care reform that will
really work for working
families.
The Senate bill is badly
flawed. It would tax
middle-class health care
benefits, allow employers to
escape responsibility for
paying a fair share and does
not include a public health
insurance option to reduce
costs and hold insurers
accountable.
We’re down to our final
opportunities to make sure
that health care reform
passed this year works for
us.
Marc Laitin
AFL-CIO Online Mobilization
Coordinator
So
the House Passed Reform, What’s Next?
A
lot of you have been asking, ‘What should we do now that the U.S. House has
passed its version of health insurance reform?’
The
short answer is: keep it up. The mission is not complete. We're still facing a
tough Senate vote, and we need to keep up the push to ensure we get health
insurance reform that helps, doesn't hurt, working families and retirees.
It’s
important for us to keep focused on our
principles and our ultimate goals, not just one specific
piece of legislation or step in the process. Here are some ideas for action to
help us do that:
qRegarding
those in the House who voted against the Affordable Health Care for America
Act: It’s up to us to find out why and try to help address any concerns on
specific issues for future votes. Take a moment to find
out how your member of Congress voted, and if appropriate,
take some time to thank them, or schedule some time to discuss concerns.
I wanted to take this opportunity to thank you for all you do. Our
members and their leaders are the heart and soul of our great union,
and I truly appreciate your commitment and hard work. I also wanted
to update you on one of the many important issues our union is
fighting hard for every day – health insurance reform.
Please join us next week for an important conference call to discuss
health insurance reform and what it means for you and your families.
You can sign up for a call by calling 412-562-2588. Or
let us know
by clicking here if you want to
participate in a call on Wednesday, Oct.
14, Thursday, Oct. 15 or Monday, Oct. 19 and someone will get
in touch with information. Please remember to include your phone
number.
We have a
limited number of slots so please sign up today.
Health
care reform is one of the civil rights issues of our time. If done
right, it’s a chance for us to build bargaining power and take care
of our retirees. But it’s a complex issue. And I want to make sure
you hear directly from us about where we stand and how important it
is for your voices to be heard in the debate.
No one knows better than you how the rising costs of health care
affect us at the bargaining table. Real reform with a strong public
option, no taxation for employer-provided benefits and other
protections for those who have benefits will help lower costs for
everyone. It will also help make our businesses more competitive so
they can keep good jobs at home.
There’s
a lot more information about this
issue in our
Health Care Toolkit. You can get there directly at
www.usw.org/healthcare.
You’ll find fliers, talking points, fact
sheets and more.
