Getting ready for another Union Meeting, Here is a little insight on what will be submitted as an action for the next meeting.
This is the effort of brother Travis Giobbi and is self explanatory:
Resolution Endorsing Single Payer Universal Health Care
May 20, 2009
Whereas: Health care in the United States is a national disgrace and in the throes of a crisis of cost, accessibility and quality; and
Whereas: Health insurance premiums skyrocketed over 10% in 2008 and more than 80% of all employers increased employee co-payments and premium contributions; and
Whereas: These increases have helped sustain a climate of concessionary bargaining, pushing down wages, and shifting more and more of the costs on to the backs of workers; and
Whereas: The employment-based system of health coverage puts benefits at risk every time workers face a layoff or change jobs; and
Whereas: More and more friends, neighbors and family members have no health coverage at all as the number of uninsured U.S. residents climbs past 47 million; and
Whereas: Workers in the U.S. pay more for healthcare than in any other country in the world and yet rank 28th in infant mortality, 24th in life expectancy; and
Whereas: A just health care in the system would provide cradle-to-grave coverage for all U.S. residents with free choice of doctors, hospitals and clinics; now
Therefore, Let It Be Resolved: That the International Union of Painters and Allied Trades, Local 10, stands in solidarity with our brothers and sisters across the country, in over 500 unions, and unequivocally advocate, educate and organize around the following principles:
1. Access to comprehensive health care is a human right. It is the responsibility of society, through its government, to assure this right. Coverage should not be ties to employment. Private insurance companies’ past record disqualifies them from a central role in managing health care.
2. The right to choose and change one’s own physician is fundamental to patient autonomy. Patients should be free to seek care from any licensed health care professional.
3. Pursuit of profit and personal fortune has no place in care giving and they create enormous waste. The U.S. already spends enough to provide comprehensive health care to all residents with no increase in total costs. However, the vast health care resources now squandered on bureaucracy (due mostly to efforts to divert costs to other payers or onto patients themselves), profits and marketing must be shifted to actual care.
4. In a democracy, the public should set overall health policies. Personal medical decisions must be made by patients with their caregivers, not by corporate or government bureaucrats; and
Let it Be Finally Resolved: That the International Union of Painters and Allied Trades, Local 10, supports and urges our federal and state legislators to enact legislation that embodies the principles of a national single-payer health care system, currently HR 676, and that a copy of this resolution is sent to the International Union of Painters and Allied Trades District Council 5 and the AFL-CIO Executive Council to pass similar resolutions.
