America, What Happened?: As Health Car Crisis Grows, CWA Backs 'Medicare for All'

Putting even more pressure on America's broken health care system, the number of people in the United States without health insurance jumped to 46.6 million last year as another 6.8 million people lost coverage over the past five years, the Census Bureau reported. That total has climbed every year since 2001; it's now equal to the total population of 24 states plus the District of Columbia.

One in six Americans — 15.9 percent — has no health care coverage and there are nearly 10 million children without any health care. More than 80 percent of the uninsured come from working families and nearly 70 percent from families with at least one full-time worker.

            At the same time, the U.S. spends more on health care than other industrialized nations, and those countries provide health care to all their citizens. Health care spending in the U.S. continues to rise at the fastest rate in our history, and hit $1.9 trillion in 2004 (the latest year data was available). 

  CWA members feel the pressure at the bargaining table as our employers across all industries and sectors attempt to shift health care costs to workers and demand that workers pay even more out-of- pocket costs. But instead of working for a long-term solution to the health care crisis, employers are trying to cut benefits, increase worker contributions and eliminate retiree health coverage.

  CWA supports reform that builds on the highly successful Medicare program with its guarantee of health coverage for older Americans. The Medicare for All Act, introduced by Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) and Rep. John Dingell (D-Mich.), would phase in expanded Medicare eligibility and eventually extend health insurance coverage to every American, with an option for employers and individuals to buy private coverage under a plan like the Federal Employee Health Insurance Benefit Plan.

  CWA locals are working to build grassroots support — in this and future election years — for Medicare for All and are pressing elected representatives for bold action on the crisis in health care.

  "The current health care system is failing the needs of working families, and that's what makes the 2006 elections so critical. We need leadership in Congress to enact legislation that will guarantee quality, affordable health care for all," said CWA Executive Vice President Jeff Rechenbach. "We need elected officials who will meet the health care crisis head on, and we must hold them accountable," he said.

For more information on CWA's campaign for health care reform, go to www.healthcarevoices.org.