This entry is reposted from the Health Care for America NOW! blog.

By Jason Rosenbaum
Health Care for America NOW! blog

We’re going to see a lot of these kinds of “compromises” from now until we pass a health reform bill through Congress. First, we had the “trigger” proposal, designed to effectively kill a public health insurance option. Now, we have the “co-op” proposal.

It’s not particularly useful to keep responding individually to these ideas - we’d be playing whack-a-mole for months. Instead, let’s lay out some principles for a strong public health insurance option. If any proposal meets these principles, no matter what you call it, it is worthy of support.

1. National and available everywhere: A strong public health insurance option will be a national public health insurance program, available in all areas of the country. The insurance industry is made of of conglomerates that have national reach. In order to have the clout to compete with the insurance industry and keep them honest, the public health insurance option must be national as well.
2. Government appointed and accountable: The entire problem with private health insurance is that they aren’t accountable to you or me. A public health insurance option must have a different incentive. A public health insurance option doesn’t have to be a government entity necessarily, but its decision makers must be appointed by government and must be accountable to government.
3. Bargaining clout: The whole point of health reform is to lower health care costs. Clearly, the insurance industry has failed to lower costs when left to their own devices. As the President says, we need a strong public health insurance option to lower rates, change the incentives in our health care system, and keep the industry honest.
4. Ready on day one: The private health insurance industry has utterly failed to control health care costs or provide their customers the quality they’ve paid through the nose for. With one person going bankrupt every 30 seconds due to health care costs, we cannot afford to wait any longer for a real fix. We need the public health insurance option to start lowering prices now. That means no trigger.

Judging from the reports I’ve seen on Senator Conrad’s proposal, a co-op as currently envisioned does not meet these principles. Here is why, in Senator Conrad’s words:

And for those against a public option because they fear government control, the co-op structure has some appeal because its not government control. It’s membership control, and membership ownership.

…

What you probably need is a national entity with state affiliates, and the further flexibility so those states can have regional pools. So in our part of the country, you might have North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, and Wyoming go together. Out east you might have Maine, Vermont, and New Hampshire together. We’re consulting with experts tomorrow about that.

As envisioned, the co-op proposal would create a bunch of member operated plans around the country, none of which would have the clout to compete with private insurance or really lower prices with providers and drug companies.

Also, another note of caution: A co-op is a legal structure. In a co-op, members of the co-op are legally liable for the co-op. That means that if a co-op was, say, sued for doing something wrong, its members might be liable for the legal bills and damages.

If Senator Conrad or anyone else in Congress can come up with a proposal that meets the above principles, we’d be happy to support it, whatever it’s called. As the proposal stands now, Conrad’s co-ops will not bring costs down, save our economy, or allow us to choose a viable public option if we don’t want to be at the mercy of private insurance. These co-ops will not solve the health care crisis, and so we oppose them.

If you agree, you can click here to call your Senators and tell them why a co-op is not the change you voted for.

This entry is adapted from remarks AFSCME President Gerald McEntee delivered at the AFSCME LGBT Pride kick-off event at the union’s headquarters in Washington, D.C., and is cross-posted from Huffington Post and Oxdown Gazette.

Earlier this month, we saw new evidence that our country has entered a real era of change when President Barack Obama issued a proclamation calling on all Americans to celebrate Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) Pride Month. “As long as the promise of equality for all remains unfulfilled, all Americans are affected,” the President’s proclamation states. “If we can work together to advance the principles upon which our Nation was founded, every American will benefit.”

This is a special year in many ways. This month, we mark the 40th anniversary of Stonewall, when the struggle for full citizenship for LGBT Americans began in earnest. The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) is proud of the role we have played to advance the cause of equal rights for LGBT Americans throughout the years. We are proud of the work of our members and our staff. We are going to continue to fight until we end every policy that treats any group of Americans as second class citizens. Discrimination is wrong. It hurts us all. It must stop.

Decades ago, AFSCME councils and locals across the country took the lead in negotiating employment non-discrimination policies. They used union power to create collective bargaining agreements to protect LGBT public employees. Those victories helped pave the way for non-discrimination policies in the private sector.

But workplace discrimination still goes on. In fact, it remains legal in 30 states to discriminate based on sexual orientation, and in 38 states to do so based on gender identity or expression. As a result, LGBT people face serious discrimination in employment. Too many people are being fired… or being denied a promotion… or experiencing harassment on the job. That is wrong and it must stop. That’s why we’re fighting to pass the federal Employment Non-Discrimination Act. Working with President Obama and our allies in the Congress, we’re going to get this done.

As we celebrate LGBT Pride, it’s also appropriate to remember that AFSCME has been fighting alongside the LGBT community on a host of other important issues. We’re working to pass a federal hate crimes law so that local law enforcement will get the resources they need to keep LGBT families safe and secure wherever they choose to live. We’re fighting to change the tax laws so that domestic partners benefits will not be taxed. We’re fighting to fund programs to protect LGBT youth from harassment. And we’re working to secure a sound retirement for LGBT seniors by ending discrimination in Social Security and tax laws.

We stood with the LGBT community during the darkest days of the AIDS crisis. We fought to end discrimination against People With AIDS. We fought to expand research and treatment programs.

Later this month, the AFSCME Pride Committee at our headquarters in Washington, DC – composed of LGBT and straight employees – will host a guest lecture named in honor of our departed brother, Van Sheets. Van spent 17 years working for AFSCME. Van was taken from us much too early. He loved this union with his heart and soul. We loved and cherished Van in return. Van was the driving force behind the creation of Pride at Work, which does so much to give the LGBT community a voice in the labor movement. I know Van would be very proud of the work the Pride Committee is doing and the event that has been scheduled to honor his memory.

Finally, let’s not forget that the values we share require us to continue to push forward. That’s always been the case in the on-going battle for freedom, fairness and equality. Just look at the fight for marriage equality. AFSCME members – straight and gay – have been fighting on the front lines. Yes, we were disappointed with the results in California last November. But today, let’s celebrate the great progress we’ve seen this year. Iowa, Connecticut, Vermont, Maine and New Hampshire have now joined Massachusetts in providing marriage equality for all of their citizens. That’s real progress.

So there is much to celebrate this month. But there is more work to be done. We’re going to do that work, year in and year out, until equal rights exist for the LGBT community and for all Americans. All of us at AFSCME, working together, are going to do our part. We’re going to make equality happen.

It is the right thing to do… for our union… for our families… for our country.

Happy LGBT Pride Month.

This entry by AFSCME President Gerald McEntee is cross-posted from Huffington Post and Oxdown Gazette.

In recent days, two generally progressive commentators have written in favor of taxing all or part of the value of employer provided health benefits as a way of paying for some of the costs of health care reform. They’ve suggested that AFSCME might “kill” health care reform because of our opposition to taxing the value of benefits. Of course we reject that characterization of our efforts.

In fact, AFSCME plays a leading role in the effort to pass real health care reform. Our stand against taxing benefits is grounded in a conviction that regressive taxation cannot cure our health care ills. Just as importantly, we are concerned that linking an unpopular tax to health care reform could kill our efforts to provide health care for all.

The argument in favor of taxing benefits centers on two points. First, like all tax exclusions and deductions, the exclusion of health benefits from taxation is worth more to higher income individuals who are in higher tax brackets. Second, the federal government foregoes $145 billion annually by shielding employer-sponsored health care benefits from taxation. Fair enough.

But there are real risks that come with a tax on health benefits. They include the likelihood that employer-sponsored insurance will be destabilized at a time when it should be reinforced; the disparate impact a change in policy will have on people who are older, sicker or in higher cost areas; the disproportionate burden a change will have on children and families; and an erosion of benefits and shifting of risk to individuals.

Some argue in favor of a compromise that would tax only “Cadillac” or “gold-plated” health insurance plans. But that won’t work. Just last month, The Commonwealth Fund reported that “many so-called “gold-plated” health benefit premiums are high only because insur­ance costs vary according to the size of the firm, the geographic region in which it is located, and the com­position of the employer’s risk pool.” Establishing a universal cap in today’s insurance market, they noted, “will have a disproportionate impact on workers in small firms, high-cost areas, and expensive risk pools.”

In addition, we need to consider the wisdom of taxing health benefits in light of the alternatives. For example, according to the Senate Finance Committee, the favorable tax treatment afforded to Capital Gains and Dividend income costs the government $178 billion per year. However, unlike the tax treatment of health benefits which goes to a broad swath of the American public, a very narrow economically privileged slice of taxpayers benefit from this favorable treatment.

This begs the question: why levy a tax on working people when this inequitable favorable tax treatment, primarily available to the wealthy, remains in place? Many of the same progressives who advocate taxing health benefits have rightly railed against rising income inequality and the dangers it presents to robust economic growth. Why not fund health care, mostly for low income underinsured and uninsured people, while simultaneously addressing one of the biggest causes of wealth inequality?

The introduction of the health benefits tax could well be the death knell for health care reform. In the historic 2008 election campaign, then Senator Barack Obama campaigned hard against the taxation of benefits, a key component of John McCain’s health care policy. President Obama recognized the taxation of benefits is unacceptable to the American public and made it a centerpiece of his campaign. He spent tens of millions of dollars on advertisements slamming McCain on the issue.

If anything, public opposition to a tax on benefits is growing. Recent polling indicates that 80 percent of likely voters oppose taxing the value of benefits while only 17 percent support it. Strong majorities oppose a health care tax without regard to political affiliation.

AFSCME opposes the health benefits tax because it could “kill” health care reform. Is there any better way to give Republicans cover to protect the insurance industry and their right wing cronies, and vote against reform, than to let them frame the issue as opposing a very unpopular tax? Do we hear Republicans campaigning in favor of taxing health benefits? Sometimes, progressives must be saved from themselves. That’s what we are doing when we stand clearly in opposition to taxing benefits that America’s working families earn on the job.

This afternoon, the U.S. Senate passed President Obama’s budget by a vote of 53 to 43. The budget resolution had easily passed in the House earlier in the day by a margin of 233 to 193.

AFSCME President Gerald W. McEntee applauded the action by Congress which underscores President Obama’s first 100 days in office:

“This budget marks another important step on the road to economic recovery; one that paves the way for health care for all. Combined with the passage of President Obama’s jobs and economic recovery bill, the expansion of health care for children and the Lilly Ledbetter fair pay act, this budget shows the enormous progress we have made in changing the direction of our nation for the better.”

This entry by AFSCME President Gerald McEntee is cross-posted from The Huffington Post and Oxdown Gazette.

Every day, more Americans get a pink slip, more stores shutter their doors and more families find the American Dream growing dimmer and farther from their grasp. Our 1.6 million members are on the frontlines of this crisis. The vital services they provide are taking huge hits – which means communities are suffering.

AFSCME stepped up our political and legislative efforts in January by creating the “Make America Happen” campaign. Through this campaign, we are mobilizing our members and the general public to support President Obama’s comprehensive effort to promote jobs and economic recovery, enact health care reform this year and pass the Employee Free Choice Act.

AFSCME marshaled our resources to make sure that the President’s historic recovery bill would include substantial new assistance to state and local governments. We generated more than 40,000 phone calls, personal letters and e-mails to members of Congress. Working with Americans United for Change, we launched ads to end the Republicans’ “Just Say No” campaign of obstruction.

The Republicans say we’re exaggerating the problems facing our economy. When President Obama extends a friendly hand to them, they respond with a clenched fist. So, we’re going on the air again with a new television spot. The Roadblock Republicans can’t hide from the damage their resistance is doing to the recovery our people need.

AFSCME has deployed grassroots organizers to work in target states as part of our “Make America Happen” campaign. We’re mobilizing across the country, from Maine to Alaska… in union strongholds like Pennsylvania and Ohio… but also in Southern states, like Arkansas and North Carolina. We’re sending our organizers into Mountain and Western states, like Montana and North Dakota. And we’re mobilizing the grassroots in the American heartland, in states such as Indiana and Missouri.

We have important work to do to overcome the opposition of the corporate CEOs who set the GOP agenda. We’re going to flood Capitol Hill with phone calls and letters to keep us on the road to recovery. And we’re going to make sure that the Roadblock Republicans know that working Americans expect them to put partisanship aside and do what is right for America.

You can see the new TV spot and read about our grassroots efforts at our new website: Make America Happen.com. AFSCME is committed to bringing bold change to our country. We are committed to making America happen again.

This entry by AFSCME President Gerald McEntee is cross-posted from The Huffington Post and Oxdown Gazette.

America’s top CEOs — the clueless millionaires whose greed, ignorance and arrogance drove our economy off a cliff — have declared their top legislative priority for 2009. It isn’t the president’s budget. It’s not promoting jobs or health care for their workers. And it’s certainly not limits on CEO pay.

Instead, they’ve launched an all out campaign to scuttle bi-partisan legislation that would restore workers’ freedom to form unions and bargain for a better life. The legislation, the Employee Free Choice Act, fixes a broken system and would restore the promise of the American Dream for working Americans. It must be a key component of our efforts to rebuild the middle class, promote economic growth and create an economy that works for all Americans.

America’s CEOs have made the defeat of this bill their biggest goal in 2009. To spearhead their campaign, they’ve hired Rick Berman, a shadowy P.R. man who has spent his career attacking nonprofits, like Mothers Against Drunk Driving, through phony front groups and misleading advertisements. Berman made a name for himself by winning huge fees working for clients including the tobacco and alcohol industries, mounting campaigns to defeat or weaken drunk driving laws, quieting concerns about cigarettes, and blocking increases in the minimum wage.

Berman specializes in Big Lie campaigns. That’s why the CEOs have hired him. The Chamber of Commerce, The National Association of Manufacturers and other front organizations for the CEOs have decided that they can’t oppose the Employee Free Choice Act on the merits, so they’ll create a Big Lie to raise concerns about the bill. The lie they’re promoting is that the bill would eliminate secret ballots for workers forming a union.

The claim is simply not true. The bill gives workers, not their employer, the choice in how they choose to form unions: either after a majority of workers sign a card in support of the union or through a secret ballot election. Workers could choose elections, but the opponents of the Employee Free Choice Act don’t care about the truth. They’ve already begun spending $200 million to spread the lie that the bill eliminates secret ballots, hoping that enough people will believe it to kill the bill. That’s why we need to call them on their lie.

The real reason CEOs oppose the bill is because they know that giving workers a better chance at forming a union will undercut corporations’ ability to keep the rewards only to themselves. Wal-Mart CEO Lee Scott - who made about $23 million in 2007 - is one of the few CEOs to tell the truth about his motives. He admits that the secret ballot canard isn’t the real reason he’s fighting to kill the bill. “We like driving the car,” he said, “and we’re not going to give the steering wheel to anybody but us.”

Playing fast and loose with the truth is not going to defeat this important legislation in Congress. In the last Congress, the Employee Free Choice Act passed the House of Representatives by a wide margin, and in the Senate, Senator Harry Reid (D-Nev.) has helped to build a solid majority of Democrats to support the bill. Thanks to Senator Reid, we now have a senate majority that supports giving workers a ticket to the middle class. But Republican senators have threatened a filibuster. Too many Republicans appear to be frightened that if they stand up to the Big Lie about secret ballots, they will upset the leaders of the their party. They know from experience that those leaders - anti-worker talking heads like Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity - will make it difficult for them to stand with America’s workers.

That’s why it’s important to keep the facts in front of the GOP senators. They need to be reminded that union members earn 30 percent more than workers who don’t have one. Union members are 63 percent more likely to have health care through their employers. That’s why workers want to join unions. CEOs don’t want to pay more so that workers can live better.

Americans want an economy that works for everyone, not just CEOs and right wing radio and TV talk show hosts. The Employee Free Choice Act will help rebuild the middle class and jumpstart our economy, by giving every worker a chance to bargain for decent wages, benefits and safe working conditions. A union job is not only a ticket for workers into the middle class, it’s the best way to jumpstart our economy.

This entry by AFSCME President Gerald McEntee is cross-posted from The Huffington Post and Oxdown Gazette.

On Tuesday night, President Obama spoke to the nation about how we will rebuild our economy. Like many Americans, I was heartened to hear him renew his commitment to pursue health care reform and to do it THIS YEAR. He told us that the “cost of our health care has weighed down our economy and the conscience of our nation long enough.” And he is right.

AFSCME members know this too well. The cost of health care coverage has skyrocketed. It threatens the economic security of working families, it strains state and federal budgets and it reduces the competitiveness of American businesses, especially those that compete in the global market. And shamefully, more than 46 million people have no coverage at all. Those fortunate enough to have coverage too often receive poor quality care.

We agree with President Obama that in reforming our health care system, we need to build on what works. Those who like their coverage should keep it. Those who don’t, should have a choice of private insurance plans or a high quality public health insurance plan. A public health insurance plan would operate more cost-effectively and drive quality improvements. This would force efficiencies and innovation in private insurance coverage. We need an American solution in which all of us–individuals, employers and government–share responsibility for guaranteeing quality, affordable health care we can all count on.

In his speech to the joint session of Congress on Tuesday, President Obama told us that we must address the crushing costs of health care in order to move our country forward. He gave us the grim statistics on why we must finally reform our health care system and get our health care costs under control. Today, it causes a bankruptcy every 30 seconds. By the end of the year, it could cause 1.5 million Americans to lose their homes. In the last eight years, premiums have grown four times faster than wages. Health care costs force small businesses to close their doors and corporations to ship jobs overseas.

President Obama has followed up his strong words on Tuesday night with a budget that makes good on his promise. While we don’t yet know all the details, he proposes to put $634 billion (over ten years) in a reserve fund to pay for health care reform. This is a substantial downpayment towards achieving comprehensive health care reform. And it’s not just money. The President’s budget also includes policy changes that will improve our health care system, such as reining in overpayments to private Medicare plans and requiring them to compete in order to offer coverage.

President Obama’s economic recovery plan included investments in our health care system that will reduce medical errors, bring costs down and improve quality of care and save lives. Now, he is building on these reforms in his first budget, making “an historic commitment to comprehensive health care reform–a down-payment on the principle that we must have quality, affordable health care for every American.” And he told us “let there be no doubt: health care reform cannot wait, it must not wait, and it will not wait another year.” Amen to that.

President Obama has just signed into law an economic recovery plan that includes substantial fiscal relief to state and local governments. Thousands of AFSCME members across the nation helped get this bill passed with phone calls, emails and faxes to members of Congress.

Watch a special video message from AFSCME International President Gerald McEntee thanking all of you who took action:

We succeeded despite the Republican leadership’s effort to kill the bill and stick to the failed policies that got us in this mess in the first place. Not one Republican supported this bill in the House. And only Senators Snowe and Collins (ME) and Specter (PA) were brave enough to break with their fellow Republicans in the Senate.

The opposition to Obama’s jobs and recovery package was truly shocking given the dire situation of our economy.

• AFSCME members are dealing with proposals for layoffs, furloughs, demands for contract re-openers and much more – all while demand for public services grows.
• America is losing 20,000 jobs a day and unemployment just hit 7.6%.
• States are looking at shortfalls this fiscal year that amount to 14% of their total budgets.
Projections for the 2010 and 2011 fiscal years look to be even worse.

While the compromise deal isn’t perfect, and we’ll probably need more help and perhaps another recovery bill, one thing is certain: without this plan, AFSCME members would feel much more pain. With it, we can avoid some of the most drastic cutbacks that would otherwise be made.

As a result of your hard work, the plan includes:

• $87 billion increase in the federal contribution for Medicaid programs, money that will immediately relieve pressures on state governments and free up resources for other purposes.
• $80 billion in new education funding to help states and local governments.
• $150 billion in spending on infrastructure, for transportation facilities, roads and bridges, public transit, clean water, flood control, school construction and energy efficiency.
• An additional $9 billion to the State Fiscal Stabilization Fund for flexible grants for critical public services.

Passing a jobs and economic recovery bill was the first of our three top legislative priorities in our “Make America Happen” campaign. Now we will fight to win quality, affordable health care for all and to pass the Employee Free Choice Act. And we’ll need you every step of the way. If the events – and your emails and calls – over the last few weeks have shown anything, it’s that when we join together, we can indeed make America happen, again.

AFSCME President Gerald W. McEntee issued the following statement on tonight’s passage of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act:

“More than a year ago, AFSCME called for a plan to create jobs and give aid to state and local governments. Now, thanks to the bold leadership of President Barack Obama and Democrats in Congress, help is on the way. Passage of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act is a major, historic victory for the American people. President Obama and the Democratic majority in Congress are delivering the change we voted for in November. Our members are proud to have played a big role in mobilizing at the grassroots level to get this bill passed. We have taken the first step in putting our country and our economy back on track.”

This entry by AFSCME President Gerald McEntee is cross-posted from The Huffington Post and Oxdown Gazette.

America is losing 20,000 jobs a day. Unemployment just hit 7.6% and states are looking at shortfalls this fiscal year that amount to 14% of their total budgets. Current projections for the next fiscal year are deficits that total 17% of budgets. And fiscal year 2011 is shaping up to be just as bad. That is why AFSCME made an economic recovery bill the top legislative priority in our "Make America Happen" campaign - our effort to win long term investment in public services, reform health care and strengthen the middle class through the Employee Free Choice Act.

AFSCME members are on the front lines as millions of our neighbors struggle to stay afloat. More than a year ago, AFSCME sounded the alarm and called for assistance for state and local governments. Now thanks to the bold leadership of President Barack Obama and the Democratic leaders in Congress, help is on the way. The historic American Recovery and Reinvestment Act will go a long way toward helping states, counties and cities provide the vital services that the public relies on in times of crisis.

The plan has more than $200 billion for state and local governments. Key parts of this aid include:

• An $87 billion increase in the federal contribution for Medicaid programs, money that will immediately relieve pressures on state governments and free up resources for other purposes;
• $80 billion in new education funding to help states and local governments;
• $150 billion for improvements to transportation facilities, roads and bridges, public transit systems, clean water, flood control, school construction and energy efficiency;
• $9 billion to the States Fiscal Stabilization Fund for flexible grants for critical public services.

AFSCME started talking about the need for state and local fiscal relief more than a year ago. An increase in the Medicaid contribution to states was our idea. We went to the Hill to ask for it. We worked to get hearings and introduced bills, and we recruited both Democratic and Republican lawmakers to support state and local aid. In the past two weeks alone, AFSCME members generated more than 40,000 phone calls, personalized letters and emails to targeted members of Congress. We also held 10 state and national press conferences. Working with Americans United for Change, we launched ads targeting 21 lawmakers to vote yes on the bill and end the Republicans’ "Just Say No" campaign of obstruction.

AFSCME marshaled our resources and worked with national organizations - including those representing the governors, state legislators, mayors and others - to make sure that any recovery bill that came out of Congress would include substantial new assistance to state and local governments. Now, after more than a year of hard work, we have an economic recovery plan that includes substantial fiscal relief for states and communities.

The compromise deal doesn’t have everything we wanted in it. It’s not perfect and we know it’s not a panacea for the problems we are seeing at the state and local level. But we know that without this plan our members and the American people would feel much more pain. With it we can avoid some of the most drastic cutbacks that would otherwise be made. I am so proud of our union and what we have done to help President Obama take this first step to get our country and our economy back on track. While the road ahead will not be smooth, we now have reason to hope.