United Auto Workers Prez calls for National Health Plan

[mestup]

http://www.detnews.com/2005/editorial/0511/04/A15-371331.htm

Rx for America: a national health plan
Detroit News
Nov 4 2005
<snips>
"To be sure, no government policy will help a company that can't make products consumers want to buy. But a modern, competitive national health insurance system would go a long way toward helping U.S. manufacturers make products at affordable prices. We need a uniquely American system, not one that tries to copy a solution from a different country. A workable American plan would be universal, covering every single man, woman and child in the United States. It would be comprehensive, offering a range of medical benefits for workers and families. And it would have only a single payer, creating the leverage needed to negotiate the cost of medical care and keep prices from rising every year.

We've heard time and again that national health insurance might be a good idea, but it's not politically possible in the United States at the present time. One thing is for sure: it's not possible to ignore our current health care crisis any longer. American workers -- and American employers -- can't afford it.

We must first free ourselves of the illusion that we really have a health care system in America. What we have is a disorganized, disjointed, antiquated, obsolete non-system of health care. Consumers are being required to subsidize a non-system that fails to deal with their basic health care needs and the cost of that system is continuing to skyrocket."

Unfortunately, the problems have only become more serious in the intervening years. We now have nearly 46 million Americans -- including more than 8 million children -- with no health insurance at all."

Labor voices Ron Gettelfinger is president of the United Auto Workers union.

[AngryAmish]

1. There is a big push right now for national health care by big industry

See they have guaranteed their retirees pensions and health insurance in perpetuity. They did not count on increased life spans. So, either big companies (see GM) go to Chapter 11 bankruptcy and pawn their retirees health care on the taxpayers or they go belly up.

One way or the other we are going to pay for it.

[kenny blankenship]

2. Well here it is at last--ten years late at least

Without having looked at the record to verify that the UAW is just now warming to the idea of socialized medicine, it's tempting to speculate that the big unions in America like the UAW resisted the idea of national health service because, if their membership had health insurance under a nationalized plan, there would be that much less reason for them to need the union organization. But now they're feeling a new urgency about this subject...

Sooo, very belatedly the the UAW is for single payer national health insurance. Will it make any difference to the viability of American car companies at this stage?

[brokensymmetry]

3. Better late than never...

the present system is broken. It's time to fix it.