Suggested Sample Resolution

as Word Document

in Adobe Format

RESOLUTION ENDORSING HR 676 – Single Payer Universal Health Care

All of our unions face a healthcare crisis.  We must wage an unnecessary and difficult struggle to win or to keep good health care coverage.  Almost every union at every contract deadline must battle and sacrifice merely to sustain health care benefits.  The rising costs of health insurance block our progress in wages and other areas.

But the crisis extends far beyond union members.  More than 47 million people in the U. S. had no health insurance during all of 2006 and more than 75 million went without it for some length of time within the last two years.  Millions with health insurance lack adequate coverage or risk losing coverage.

People of color, immigrants and women suffer from inequalities in access and delivery of health care, while the elderly and many others must choose between necessities and life-sustaining drugs and care.  Unorganized workers have inadequate coverage or none.  The Institute of Medicine reported that each year more than 18,000 in the U. S. die because they had no health insurance.

While we in the United States spend approximately twice as much of our gross domestic product as other developed nations on health care, we remain the only industrialized country without universal coverage.  Our problem worsens each year as insurance costs increase and as gradual solutions have failed to make a dent in the problem.

The U. S. health system continues to treat health care as a commodity distributed according to the ability to pay, rather than as a social service to be distributed according to human need.  Insurance companies and HMOs compete not by increasing quality or lowering costs, but by avoiding covering those whose needs are greatest.

Economic necessity and moral conscience compel us to seek a better way.  Congressman John Conyers, Jr. (D-MI) (joined by 88 co-signers) has introduced HR 676, the United States National Health Insurance Act, also called Expanded and Improved Medicare for All.

This single-payer health care program proposes an effective mechanism for controlling skyrocketing health costs while covering all 47 million uninsured Americans.  The bill also restores free choice of healthcare providers to patients and provides comprehensive prescription drug coverage to seniors, as well as to younger people.

HR 676 would cover every person in the U. S. for all necessary medical care including prescription drugs, hospital, surgical, outpatient services, primary and preventive care, emergency services, dental, mental health, home health, physical therapy, rehabilitation (including for substance abuse), vision care, chiropractic and long term care.

HR 676 ends deductibles and co-payments.  HR 676 would save billions annually by eliminating high overhead and profits of the private health insurance industry and HMOs. The transition to national health insurance would apply the savings from administration and profits to expanded and improved coverage for all.

A single payer program as provided by HR 676 is the only affordable option for universal, comprehensive coverage.

Resolved:

That __________________________________ wholeheartedly endorses Congressman Conyers' bill HR 676, “Expanded and Improved Medicare for All,” a single payer health care program.

That __________________________________ will work with other unions and community groups to build a groundswell of popular support and action for single payer universal health care and HR 676 until we make what is morally right for our nation into what is also politically possible.

That __________________________________ will take other actions to mobilize our members and our community at the grassroots to encourage other members of the House to sign on as co-sponsors of HR 676 and to encourage Senators to introduce a companion bill in the Senate.

Our local union/district council/labor council has endorsed HR 676:

Union______________________________________International__________________

Address_________________________________________________________________

City__________________________ State _______________________ Zip__________

Phone:____________________________ Fax:________________________________

email:______________________________

Signed by__________________________________Title______________________________

Signature: ____________________________________  Date____________________

Please return to:  NY Labor for Single Payer Healthcare—HR 676

c/o Troy Area Labor Council, AFL-CIO

 43 Madonna Lake Road

Cropseyville, NY 12052

(518) 279-3749

You may also want to send copies to:

AFL-CIO President John Sweeney (815 16th St. NW, Washington, DC 20006);

NYS AFL-CIO President Denis Hughes (50 Broad St., 35^th Fl., NYC, NY 10004);

Congressional Representative(s) who represent your members

as well as Senators Clinton and Schumer.