Breast cancer is the most common form of cancer for women in the U.S. While the greatest risk is to older persons, women of all ages should take protective measures.

Early Detection of Breast Cancer: An AFSCME Guide is a good place to start when it comes to prevention. There are still many questions surrounding the disease, and the Sister Study - a survey being conducted by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences - is looking for the answers and you can help.

By Sept. 2007, the Sister Study hopes to identify 50,000 women whose sisters had breast cancer. It is important for women from different ethnic groups and backgrounds to participate so that the study’s results benefit everyone. The women needed most at this time are blue collar workers, African Americans, Latinas (for Spanish, visit www.estudiodehermanas.org), Native Americans, Asians, and Pacific Islanders and all women over 55.

Rhode Island Council 94 has taken to the airwaves to preserve public services provided by its 10,000 members, some of whom work as dietary and housekeeping employees at a state hospital and a veterans’ home.

Rhode Island Gov. Don Carcieri’s (R) proposed 2008 budget would outsource those services at the Eleanor Slater Hospital in Cranston and the Rhode Island Veterans Home in Bristol.

Council 94 knows the nation’s veterans deserve better care than to receive services from a for-profit employer whose main concern is the bottom line. That’s why the council is fighting back with a media campaign. Watch their television ads below or at these links on YouTube: “Family” and “Taking On Privatization”.

Read more about Council 94’s ad campaign on Working Rhode Island’s site.

President McEntee took AFSCME’s health care message to Capitol Hill on Wednesday, delivering testimony before the U.S. House of Representatives in which he said, “Shamefully, 45 million people live with the fear that they or a family member will need care for which they cannot pay.”

Testifying before the U.S. Energy and Commerce Health Subcommittee, McEntee said the crisis of the uninsured affects everyone—including members of unions who have kept their health insurance after fighting long, hard battles against management seeking to cut benefits.

“It cannot be overstated that the crisis of the uninsured is everyone’s problem, including those of us who have insurance,” McEntee testified. “The elaborate shell game of cost-shifting that is built into our insurance rates to pay for uncompensated care means that each time the number of uninsured rises, so do our premiums.”

McEntee also noted with dismay that many child care providers and home care workers do not receive health benefits as part of their jobs. “It is a travesty when those on the frontlines of providing care to our children, our elderly and our disabled have no health care themselves,” McEntee told Congress.

The State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) turns 10 years old this year, and that is a cause for celebration. Created to help provide health insurance for children whose parents made too much to qualify for Medicaid, yet who could not afford to purchase coverage for their family, SCHIP is undoubtedly one of the most successful Congressional initiatives of the past decade.

By matching federal money with state funds, the program has allowed many states to expand coverage initiatives for struggling working families that they would not have been able to pursue without SCHIP. The program has resulted in a 30% decline nationwide in the number of low-income children without health insurance. Because of its success, SCHIP merits strong bipartisan support in Congress.

But not everyone is singing “Happy Birthday” to SCHIP. George W. Bush has announced his intention to cut funding for this important program in his latest budget.

To maintain coverage for the kids currently enrolled in the program, SCHIP needs $15 billion, and it would cost $60 billion to expand coverage to all kids nationwide who are eligible for the program. But Bush only proposes a paltry $5 billion in his latest budget.

He has said he wants to return the program to its “original objective” of covering families who are nearer the poverty limit. But by expanding the income eligibility of their SCHIP plans, states have acknowledged that working families are hit especially hard, particularly in states with high costs of living.

The need for coverage assistance in higher income brackets also underscores the tremendous erosion in employer-sponsored health insurance over the past several years. In 2000, when George W. Bush was elected president, 69% of non-elderly people in the U.S. had employer-sponsored health coverage. Today, that figure has dropped to only 60%.

The Administration that declares “No Child Left Behind” as its slogan should put its money where its mouth is regarding SCHIP. Children without health coverage are more likely to suffer long-term effects of treatable illnesses. This impacts their performance in school and ability to become productive members of society.

If George W. Bush were truly concerned about our future national strength and security, he would fund children’s healthcare coverage today.

Call your Senators and Representative toll-free at 1-800-828-0498, and tell them you want them to fully fund children’s healthcare through SCHIP.

For more information on the plight of uninsured kids and the fight for SCHIP funding, go to http://www.childrenshealthcampaign.org.

For the past four years, Resurrection Health Care, one of the largest non-profit health care systems in Illinois, has systematically denied the rights of its employees to have a voice at work. It’s time for management to hear them loud and clear.

Despite its original mission of providing quality care, in recent years RHC has increasingly been run like a business, slashing budgets for patient care while increasing executive compensation. This is why the system’s nearly 8,000 employees, including 2,000 nurses, are not only fighting for themselves but also for the dignity of working families nationwide.

In order to drive the message home once and for all, AFSCME and Sen. Barack Obama will join forces in Chicago on Saturday, March 3 to support RHC workers’ fight for dignity. The rally will bring together labor, political, religious and community leaders including AFSCME International Pres. Gerald McEntee, AFL-CIO Pres. John Sweeney and Sen. Obama.

Be there on Saturday and come together for justice at Resurrection. For tickets, e-mail obamarally@afscmeillinois.org.

Apparently President Bush has discovered that our health care system is in need of attention. Welcome to the real world, Mr. President. AFSCME and others have been working on this problem for two decades.

Unfortunately, the President’s prescription for what ails us is meaningless manipulation of the tax code. It will do nothing to address the affordability of health care for AFSCME members or other members of the middle-class. But it will provide many higher income, self-employed earners with huge tax breaks while at the same time subjecting the health benefits of many in the middle class to taxation.

The president continues to foster a “go it alone” strategy when every expert recognizes that health benefit systems work best when there is shared risk. No wonder House leader Pelosi called the President’s plan “empty rhetoric.”

What this country needs is meaningful reform. AFSCME members have long recognized this need and as recently as at our Convention in August we passed a resolution in opposition to the President’s tax-based plans and passed another resolution setting out our own prescription to cure the health care crisis.

It will take more than rhetoric and tax manipulation. It will take a plan that addresses affordability, access to coverage, quality of care, and fairness in financing. It’s time for health care reform that matters. AFSCME is committed; and thousands of our members are engaged in the fight.

What’s the difference between Americans who have health insurance and the 46.6 million who don’t? The former are out of several hundred dollars in premiums and the latter can’t afford to pay them.

Health insurance continues to erode for working families as the number of uninsured people grew for the fifth year in a row. Meanwhile, premiums for employer-sponsored health coverage rose by an average 7.7 percent in 2006, an increase of more than twice as much as workers’ wages (3.8 percent) and overall inflation (3.5 percent), according to the 2006 Employer Health Benefits Survey.

Many among the uninsured postpone urgent medical care due to economic constraints, increasing mortality and costing billions in lost productivity. Our health care system is spiraling into crisis and only comprehensive reform will prevent disaster. Making sure that every American has access to affordable health coverage is not just good business; it is the right thing to do.

Congress asked Americans what they thought about our broken national health care system. Their answer, including that of more than 20,000 AFSCME members, was clear: we want affordable health care for everyone.

A federal commission called the Citizens’ Health Care Working Group was tasked with compiling the opinions of average citizens and issuing recommendations on health care reform. Its findings were consistent with AFSCME’s positions:

• Cost control: Contain costs instead of shifting the cost to workers and guarantee financial protection against very high health care costs;
• Coverage: Provide access to insurance coverage for everyone;
• Quality: Emphasize quality to improve outcomes and decrease costs from medical errors;
• Fairness: Everyone must share in financing of health care.

When approximately 46 million Americans lack health coverage, it’s more than time to do something. Just like millions of working families, AFSCME believes health care for all should be a national priority. This report should be a wake up call to Congress and President Bush to act accordingly.

There’s been so much bad news on the health care front for working Americans that it makes us sick. Except, if you do get sick you probably can’t afford it. From a failed prescription drug plan for seniors to cutbacks in Medicaid to pay for tax cuts, this Administration is doing just about everything wrong. Reading the press on these efforts is one thing, but hearing first hand from AFSCME members about what they are going through is another. Here’s what one member is facing, in his own words.

I am a father of 3 school aged children, and the husband of a full time worker. I am a State worker for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. We continue to get contracts with 1% to 3% COLA, which never keeps up with the rising cost of health care. My deductibles have gone up. My office visit co-pays have gone up. My prescription co-pays have gone up. We need our Government to take a hard strong look at these health care companies and the profits they make off the working class.

Hey, George, are you listening? Real Americans. Real problems with health care. When will you realize we need a real solution?

There’s been so much bad news on the health care front for working Americans that it makes us sick. Except, if you do get sick you probably can’t afford it. From a failed prescription drug plan for seniors to cutbacks in Medicaid to pay for tax cuts, the Bush Administration is doing just about everything wrong. Reading about it in the press on these efforts is one thing, but hearing first hand from AFSCME members about what they are going through is another. Here’s what one member is facing, in his own words.

I am a father of 3 school-aged children, and the husband of a full-time worker. I am a state worker for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. We continue to get contracts with 1 percent to 3 percent COLA, which never keeps up with the rising costs of health care. My deductibles have gone up. My office visit co-pays have gone up. My prescription co-pays have gone up. We need our government to take a hard, strong look at these health care companies and the profits they make off the working class.

Hey, George, are you listening? Real Americans. Real problems with health care. When will you realize we need a real solution?