Health Care

Health care is a basic human right.  America’s labor movement has worked for more than a century for guaranteed high-quality health care for everyone.  The Affordable Care Act is a historic milestone on this journey, but we still have a long way to go.

America must continue moving forward toward a more equitable and cost-effective health care system. Moving forward means working with employers to demand health care payment and delivery reforms to control costs, allowing people of all ages to buy into the equivalent of Medicare through a public plan option and allowing Medicare to negotiate lower drug prices.  Of course, the most cost-effective and equitable way to provide quality health care is through the social insurance model (“Medicare for All”), as other industrialized countries have shown. 

The worst thing we could do is move backward by repealing the Affordable Care Act or its key provisions; privatizing Medicare or turning it into a voucher program; raising the Medicare eligibility age; increasing Medicare co-pays and deductibles or otherwise cutting Medicare benefits; or taxing employment-based health care benefits. 

More about this issue:

Jul 16, 2021 | News Story

2020’s growth in pay inequity between workers and CEOs confirms the “executive base salary reductions” touted during the COVID-19 crisis were just lip service, per this year’s AFL-CIO Executive Paywatch report.

Jul 16, 2021 | News Story

Workers at the Hispanic Society, which runs a museum and library in upper Manhattan dedicated to the arts and literature of Spain and Latin America, this week voted to join UAW Local 2110.

Jul 16, 2021 | News Story

Actors' Equity Association has partnered with the National Energy Management Institute (NEMI), the ventilation, indoor air quality and air balancing arm of the International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation (SMART) workers to release a new model ventilation standard for li

Jul 16, 2021 | News Story

Our outdated labor laws are no longer strong enough to protect us in the workplace. High-profile corporations openly union-bust without facing consequences. Anti-worker lawmakers have passed wage-killing and racist right to work laws in 27 states.

Jul 9, 2021 | News Story

On Wednesday, New York City held a ticker-tape parade to honor the essential workers who helped the city through the COVID-19 pandemic. The Hometown Heroes Parade kicked off at 11 a.m.

Jul 9, 2021 | News Story

Actors’ Equity Association is thrilled with the news that the House of Representatives Appropriations Committee approved President Biden’s full budgetary request of $201 million for the National Endowment for the Arts, a record for the agency.

Jul 9, 2021 | News Story

There’s still time to enroll for the Fall 2021 semester at SLU. If you have participated in some of SLU’s public programs, you have already been introduced to some of the School’s renowned faculty.

Jul 2, 2021 | News Story

On Tuesday, United States Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm came to New York City to discuss ways to build a clean energy economy and create good-paying, union jobs. As part of the visit, she sat down at a roundtable with union leaders and workers organized by Climate Jobs NY.

Jul 2, 2021 | News Story

Staff members of Brooklyn Defender Services (“BDS”), a non-profit public defender organization in Kings County, this week announced the formation of the BDS Union as a chapter of the Association of Legal Aid Attorneys (“ALAA”) – UAW Local 2325.

Jul 2, 2021 | News Story

Editorial employees of Insider overwhelmingly voted 241-14 to be represented by The NewsGuild of New York, TNG-CWA Local 31003 in a National Labor Relations Board election that concluded this week.