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.
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Each and every day of this crisis, union members on the frontlines of the COVID-19 outbreak are bravely going to work, putting their health and lives on the line for their fellow New Yorkers.
On behalf of the New York City labor movement at the epicenter of the COVID-19 crisis, I’d like to extend thanks to United States Senator Charles Schumer for his tireless work on the stimulus bill.
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(Updated 8/14/20) The Coronavirus (COVID-19) continues to have significant effects not only on the health of New Yorkers but on the economy as a whole. With businesses forced to close, workers in all industries are facing unprecedented economic uncertainty.
Worried about how the Coronavirus affects workers?
Join us for a panel on safety and health protections for workers, unions, employers and the community.
Panelists:
NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene