WHEREAS:

The health insurance crisis of the past decade has continued into the 1990's, with the recession, unemployment, and double-digit health care inflation forcing a reconsideration of employment-based insurance coverage; and

WHEREAS:

AFSCME members continue to battle employers at the bargaining table over health insurance coverage and greater employee cost-sharing, and collectively bargained wage increases are being cut back by rising health insurance costs; and

WHEREAS:

Affordable coverage for AFSCME families is threatened when, according to a national study, nearly 12% of an average family income goes for health care — over $4,000 annually — and the employer share is declining; and

WHEREAS:

The 37 million uninsured working families and their children are joined by millions more under-insured — middle class families who because of declining coverage and rising costs also face serious financial and medical risks; and

WHEREAS:

Medicaid and other public health services cannot be expected to fill in the gaps, particularly given the fiscal crisis facing state and local governments; and

WHEREAS:

AFSCME, in conventions and over the past several years, has studied carefully the health care financing and delivery systems of other countries and has concluded that an American version of the Canadian single payer national health insurance system is the best system to address the problems of access, cost containment and quality; and

WHEREAS:

AFSCME has endorsed and actively lobbied for H.R. 1300 — the Universal Health Care Act of 1991 — which would create a single national health insurance plan for all, including coverage for long term care and prescription drugs; and

WHEREAS:

AFSCME's endorsement of H.R. 1300, along with numerous other labor unions, is consistent with the AFL-CIO's goal of a social insurance plan for all Americans; and

WHEREAS:

A recent General Accounting Office study indicated that the U.S. would save $67 billion in administrative waste, more than enough to pay for the uninsured and eliminate cost-sharing for everyone, if a Canadian-style single payer health insurance plan were implemented; and

WHEREAS:

H.R. 1300 and similar federal legislation would have saved state and local governments $30 billion or more than half of their total collective deficit in 1991; and

WHEREAS:

A single payer national health insurance plan will rid the system of the unnecessary administrative costs and other waste and duplication which consumes nearly one-fifth of our total spending, freeing up resources for improving services, retraining displaced workers, and investing in public hospitals and infrastructure.

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED:

That AFSCME members will help build a broad-based grassroots campaign for national health insurance; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED:

That AFSCME International will develop educational materials, policy briefs and other organizing literature to assist its members in the campaign; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED:

That AFSCME members will urge elected officials at all levels of government — cities, counties, state legislatures, Congress — to support national health insurance; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED:

That AFSCME will fight for the integration of mental health and long term care services into a national health care plan, and that such reforms must ensure that the needs of clients/residents and their caregivers in publicly-operated facilities for developmentally disabled individuals are addressed; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED:

That as part of our strategy to improve the quality of care we will work to improve the wages, working conditions and decision-making responsibilities of health care workers and to preserve the essential role of public services; and

BE IT FINALLY RESOLVED:

That AFSCME will continue to mobilize broad community support for universal health care through labor's Jobs with Justice campaign and similar coalition efforts.

SUBMITTED BY:

INTERNATIONAL EXECUTIVE BOARD

Edith, Brown, President
Mary Williams, Secretary-Treasurer
AFSCME Local 1669, Council 31
Illinois

Mary Burbage, President
Liz Larsen, Delegate
AFSCME Local 443, Council 28
Washington

Linda Preston, Executive Director
AFSCME Council 10
California