WHEREAS:

Across America, skyrocketing health insurance costs are continually undermining the fiscal stability of the public and private sector as well as the contracts negotiated by AFSCME councils and locals; and

WHEREAS:

The increase in the number of strikes over health insurance cutbacks is on the rise, and employer attempts to shift the rising costs to workers and their families through higher deductibles, coinsurance and premium sharing is commonplace; and

WHEREAS:

The cost-shifting inherent in the current system requires a national solution; and

WHEREAS:

Health care workers, along with the patients they serve, are bearing the brunt of rising costs, as the health care delivery system scrambles to cut costs by cutting services and jobs; and

WHEREAS:

With 37 million citizens who have no health insurance whatsoever, and another 60 million citizens with completely inadequate insurance coverage, the United States of America is the only industrialized nation on earth, except South Africa, to have no national health insurance for its people; and

WHEREAS:

The over 1,500 different health insurance companies across America have done little or nothing to effectively contain costs and, instead, charge all of us more than $50 billion per year for unnecessary and duplicative advertising, marketing and administrative overhead, let alone force doctors, hospitals and each of us to process endless and wasteful paperwork; and

WHEREAS:

These same insurance companies and health administration consultants take over 23 cents of every dollar spent on health care in America, and at the same time do little or nothing to cut the more than $100 billion annually in unnecessary hospitalizations, diagnostic tests and surgical procedures; and

WHEREAS:

The United States of America spends more than any other nation on earth on health care-more than $600 billion in 1990 (or 12% of our Gross National Product) with costs doubling nearly every 5 years; and

WHEREAS:

Canada has had a very successful national health insurance system which spends much less than the U.S. (8.5% of its GNP compared to 12% for the U.S.) and covers all of its people with a single insurance payment system for every man, woman and child in the country; and

WHEREAS:

Only a national health care system can control costs and guarantee universal access to care; and

WHEREAS:

The U.S. can learn much from Canada and other countries as we build an American solution to our national health care system.

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED:

That AFSCME work with its members nationwide, the AFL-CIO, governors, mayors, county executives and other employers, along with state and local legislators, U.S. Senators and Representatives to build a campaign for national health care.

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED:

That AFSCME will enlist employer support for national health care reform in our collective bargaining agreements, labor/management forums, and with appropriate employer organizations; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED:

That AFSCME will organize members to resist employer efforts to cut back health benefits at the bargaining table and mobilize broad community support for universal health care through the Jobs With Justice campaign; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED:

That as part of our strategy to improve the delivery of health care we will work to improve the wages, benefits and working conditions of health and medical care employees and home care employees and to preserve the essential role of hospitals and other health care facilities serving a disproportionate share of the poor and uninsured; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED:

That AFSCME call for a single insurance payment system covering each and every American as the best way to control costs and provide universal access to high quality health care; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED:

That AFSCME use every means available in the campaign for national health care, with the goal of a single national system for all Americans; and

BE IT FINALLY RESOLVED:

That AFSCME work to achieve passage of national health care through Congress and state legislatures to gain universal access, cost and quality controls.

SUBMITTED BY:

International Executive Board

Steven Myli, Delegate
Laura Comstock, Delegate
AFSCME Local 2428, Council 57
Oakland, CA

Henry Nicholas, President
Kathy Sackman, Secretary-Treasurer
Donna Ford, Executive Secretary
Victor Garcia, Secretary
Local 1199/AFSCME
Philadelphia, PA

Louis G. Albano, President
George Wendt, Secretary
AFSCME Local 375, Council 37
New York, NY