By Doug Cunningham

One huge impediment to working families getting the universal national health care they want is the massive political spending and lobbying done by the health care industry. A report done by the California Nurses Association’s Institute for Health and Socio-Economic policy says the industry spent $2.2 billion on federal lobbying alone in the past ten years. What does that money buy? It bought the health insurance industry a Medicare prescription drug benefit that forces seniors to go through private companies for their prescriptions while blocking the government’s ability to negotiate lower prices. California Nurses Association President Deborah Burger says that lobbying money also blocks bills to protect patients from abuses, defeats greater public oversight of insurers and prevents re-importation of less expensive prescription drugs from Canada. In the 2008 presidential election the health care industry is spending millions of dollars on the candidates. The result is that health care industry profits are way up while working families are struggling with medical debt, high process and inadequate or unaffordable insurance.

More evidence that even the insured are having a hard time keeping up with upward spiraling medical costs in the U.S. Jesse Russell reports:

A new report from Brandeis University shows that even individuals with healthcare are having a hard time paying high medical costs. Report author Carol Pryor says a quarter of Americans with health coverage are in debt to providers or have trouble paying bills.

[Pryor]: Insurers are shifting more and more costs to consumers in the form of higher deductibles, higher co-pays. We found that many people even with middle incomes ended up with medical bills that were simply unaffordable for them, bills that they couldn't pay.

By Doug Cunningham

Workers are telling their stories of being caught up in a maddening, expensive and inadequate health care system on Working America’s Health Care Hustle web site. Amy Robinson has battled for decades first to get a kidney transplant and then to keep it.

[Amy Robinson]: “Even though I had three insurances – I did have the transplant through those – and when I got done I basically got a bill for thousands and thousands of dollars stating that I had to pay immediately and there was no payment plan. At this point, I am struggling every day to do what it takes to keep my transplant, to be healthy. My main medication for transplanted patients is running about a thousand dollars a month.”

By Doug Cunningham

St, Louis Jobs With Justice’s Aaron Burnett says a new report called The Illusion of Coverage illustrates that it’s not just the uninsured who are being hurt by our broken health care system.

[Burnett]: “Most people who have health care insurance through their employers are affected greatly, and find themselves in debt - even though they have health insurance that they feel will protect them from health and financial ruin."

By Doug Cunningham

Working America – the 1.5 million member community affiliate of the AFL-CIO – has launched “The Health Care Hustle”. It’s a web site and public information campaign that lets workers share their health care hardship stories. Working America’s Karen Nussbaum says it will identify the worst health care hustlers who are profiting from a system that’s failing America’s families…

[Nussbaum 1]: “We want to make sure Americans know that the mess our health care system is in is not a natural disaster. It's the result of decisions made by special interests and corporations and the politicians who do their bidding."

By Doug Cunningham

When the AFL-CIO Executive Council supported a universal national health care system in Las Vegas, it stopped short of endorsing a bill by Rep.John Conyers that would create a single-payer plan. Jerry Shea, Assistant to the President of the AFL-CIO, says the labor federation wants a health care system based on an expansion of Medicare but not limited to the Conyers proposal.

[Shea]: "A Medicare system, such as we're proposing, would be a form of a single payer system. But we did not endorse in this resolution the bill that many of our local affiliates have endorsed - that is the Conyers legislation - because we're specifically talking about using some of the proposals that are now in Congress and expanding those and fully developing them to base the system on Medicare."

By Doug Cunningham

The Medicare prescription drug program could save $30 billion a year if the government were allowed to negotiate lower drug prices. That's according to a new report from the Center for Economic and Policy Research. Economist Dean Baker says the Veterans Administration and many foreign countries pay as much as 70 percent less for drugs than the Medicare drug program. And fewer people than expected enrolled, also a factor in the lower than projected cost. The bottom line? Congress created a program that's unnecessarily more costly than if a drug benefit had just been added to existing Medicare with the government power to negotiate lower prices.

By Doug Cunningham

The California Nurses Association is enthusiastically backing a single payer universal health care bill in California. The bill is modeled after Medicare rather than the failing market-based insurance company controlled system that we now have. Deborah Burger, President of the California Nurses Association, says it’s likely that universal health care will be vetoed again by Governor Arnold Schwarzennegger, but it’s important to keep fighting for a single payer health care system that covers everyone.

[Burger]: "What I think is going to happen is that if we can get the public's support on this there are going to be fewer and fewer politicians that will be able to hide behind some of the myths and misconceptions that the public has. So the more we can educate the public on what Sheila Keuhl's bill does mean - and what Conyers' bill means nationally - there are fewer people that will be able to be misled."

By Doug Cunningham

The single-payer universal national health care bill sponsored by Michigan Democratic congressman John Conyers has picked up more labor support. The Monroe/Lenawee County Michigan AFL-CIO Central Labor Council has endorsed the bill. A UAW local representing workers who build the Corvette in Kentucky is also endorsing the bill. The Conyers bill would essentially expand Medicare to cover everyone in the U.S. for all medically necessary procedures. It has nearly 80 co-sponsors in the U.S. House.

By Doug Cunningham

SEIU Local 73's 100 member executive board in Chicago has voted to endorse the universal national health care bill sponsored by Congressman John Conyers and 77 other members of the House. The United States National Health Insurance Act would cover everyone in the country for all medically necessary care by expanding Medicare. It's a concrete health care reform plan that would create a single payer national health care system.

There's plenty of money for war in George W. Bush's nearly three trillion dollar federal budget, but not enough for poor kids' health insurance. Jesse Russell reports.

Rhonda Meadows, head of Georgia's Department of Community Health, made the announcement on Thursday that due to the lack of funding from the federal government the state's Peachcare health insurance program for low-income families would be frozen. Meadows said children already enrolled in the program would continue to receive services until all the funding runs out. But the door had to be closed on new applicants. The shortfall comes after President George W. Bush failed to include extra funding for the States Children's Health Insurance Program in his budget. Georgia is only one of fourteen states facing a shortfall. In 2005 the federal health insurance program covered six million children nationwide. Congressional Democrats are pushing to expand the program so it would cover all children without health insurance.

California isn’t the only state with an eye on healthcare reform, Pennsylvania has also announced an ambitious plan. Jesse Russell has more:

Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell released his plan on Wednesday, intended to help the 900,000 people in his state who currently lack healthcare. To help fund the plan Rendell is calling for higher taxes on tobacco products while prohibiting smoking in bars and other workplaces. The program calls for offering affordable coverage for small businesses with less than 50 workers who earn under the state’s average wage of $39,000 a year. Both the employer and employee would pay into the fund. Helping pay for that part of the plan would be a “fair share assessment” that would penalize employers who don’t offer healthcare. In an attempt to dissuade expensive emergency room visits, Rendell would like to reward health care providers who expand their hours and stay open nights and weekends.

Labor isn’t thrilled with the California governor’s universal health care proposal.

[Schwarzenegger1]: Sometimes thousands of dollars have been rung up with all kinds of scans and CAT scans and all that for a simple nosebleed.

That was California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger speaking about a plan announced Monday that would expand universal healthcare to all of the state’s residents. It is part of a pledge made by the governor and Democrats in the state legislature to make healthcare the number one priority of the new term, but with this announcement some unions have unanswered questions. Art Pulaski, executive director of the California Labor Federation has been quoted as calling the plan “a whack in the side of the head for workers and a tax on the middle class.” Pulaski said the proposed tax on businesses - four percent of payroll if they don’t pay health benefits - will encourage businesses currently providing health benefits to drop them. Rayna Lehman, director of Community service for the San Mateo Central Labor Council expressed similar concerns to the San Mateo County Times, saying the plan seems to shift a lot of burden to employees.

By Jesse Russell

California’s governor wants to provide universal healthcare for the state’s 6.5 million uninsured. Under Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s plan businesses with 10 or more employees would have to offer insurance or pay four percent of payroll into a state fund. Insurers would no longer be allowed to deny coverage based on medical problems. The poorest in the state would be subsidized through a state-run pool.

By Doug Cunningham

A study by the Commonwealth Fund’s Commission on a High Performance Health System says when compared with two dozen other industrialized countries the U.S. has the highest infant mortality rate and the lowest life expectancy for people who have reached age 60. The study says our youngest and oldest citizens are suffering most from a health care system that's fragmented, wasteful and in some cases dangerous.

By Doug Cunningham

The Citizen’s Health Care Working Group report reflecting input from thousands of Americans around the country is being presented to President Bush and to Congress. Among its findings, that Americans want public policy guaranteeing affordable health insurance coverage for all Americans with the costs shared among government, employers and individuals.The report also finds that Americans want protections against catastrophic health care costs. AFL-CIO President John Sweeney says what is striking about the report is that Americans say they want more than incremental changes – they want universal care. Something Congress has not done in its failure to really address the nation’s health care crisis.

By Doug Cunningham

SEIU President Andy Stern says new census figures showing an increase in the number of people without health insurance in the U.S. is a “stain on this country”. He’s calling on employers to call on Congress to produce real health care reform that guarantees affordable health insurance to everyone. Forty six point six million people, most of them employed, went without health insurance in 2005. Stern says if this broken health care system is to be fixed business and labor must work together to find a solution.

By Doug Cunningham

Two more AFL-CIO Central Labor Councils – in Riverside, California and Cape Girardeau, Missouri have become the latest labor organizations to endorse HR 676, the single payer universal health care bill sponsored by Democratic Michigan Congressman John Conyers. There are now 75 congressional co-sponsors of the legislation. The Conyers plan would cover every person in the country for all necessary medical care. It’s been endorsed by 170 labor organizations.

By Jesse Russell

Will it be business and not government that solves the healthcare crisis? Wal-Mart CEO Lee Scoot suggested just that on Charlie Rose's PBS show. Scott, who's company is repeatedly attack for not offering decent wages and reasonable healthcare options for employees, said he believes the country is at a "tipping point" when it comes to addressing the issue. Scott added that business won't be alone in pushing the government towards a solution, he said labor will also play a major role.

By Doug Cunningham

Healthcare-NOW, a national coalition of labor, community and faith-based groups, is calling for a national day of local actions June 7th in support of the United States National Health Insurance Act, which has been introduced in the U.S. House by Rep. John Conyers of Michigan. The Conyers bill would create a single payer national health care plan covering all necessary medical procedures for everyone in the U.S. Seventy members of Congress are co-sponsoring the Conyers bill.