Organized Labor

The California Labor Federation’s “It’s OUR Healthcare!” tour stopped in San Francisco June 28 as part of a six city, four-day “Road to Reform” tour through the state. Labor leaders, elected officials and union members talked to Californians about their concerns and experiences with healthcare, collected healthcare stories and delivered messages to elected officials in Sacramento. The tour included events in San Diego, Los Angeles, Bakersfield, Fresno, San Francisco and Sacramento.

The San Francisco Labor Council hosted the rally on the steps of City Hall. California Labor Federation Executive Secretary-Treasurer Art Pulaski told the crowd, “We’ve heard the stories about the health care crisis in California. Half of the families who declare bankruptcy do so because of the cost of medical insurance. They have insurance, but can’t make ends meet. We’ve heard from retirees who say they cut their pills in half and have to choose between meals and meds.”

Pulaski said that the high costs of health care go to insurance and pharmaceutical companies. “The insurance companies have become the Enrons of the 21st Century,” Pulaski said. “Insurance companies made $9 billion in profits last year. The pharmaceutical companies made $39 billion. The CEO of United Health Care made $5 million.”

Pulaski offered four prescriptions to reform health care: “Stop the insurance company rip-off, stop the pharmaceutical companies’ rip-off, ensure that affordable and universal coverage is available to everybody in California, and see that everybody pays their fair share. Only when employers and government make a meaningful contribution should we ask individuals to pay.”

The requirement that individuals be required to purchase health insurance was dropped from the health care bill sponsored by State Senate Pro Tem Don Perata, D-Oakland, when it was merged last month with the bill authored by Assembly Speaker Fabian Núñez, D-Los Angeles. Gov. Schwarzenegger’s proposal does require the uninsured to purchase insurance. It would be funded by a mix contributions from employers and individuals, as well as doctors and hospitals. Employers with 10 or more workers would have to cover their employees or contribute 4 percent of their payroll tax into a state insurance fund; The Perata- Núñez bill would require employers to pay 7.5 percent of payroll costs, with no exemptions for size. Up to four million of the state’s 6.5 million uninsured residents would be covered by either plan.

Some union members at the San Francisco rally chanted “single payer” and called for support for Sheila Kuehl’s SB 840. The bill would establish a “Medicare for all” system that would eliminate private insurance companies from the health care system and be funded in part through savings in administrative costs. SB 840 was supported by the Labor Federation in 2006. It passed the state legislature but was vetoed by Schwarzenegger.

“Healthcare is a fundamental need, yet health insurance has become a luxury in California. Three-quarters of the more than six million Californians that go without health insurance every year are from working families.

Mayor Gavin Newsom and Supervisor Tom Ammiano also spoke in support of Labor’s campaign for universal health care. Ammiano, who is endorsed by the Building Trades Council in his bid for State Assembly, was the force behind the City establishing its Health Access Plan. The plan would provide health care to uninsured San Franciscans. “I’m proud of the health care activists, labor, and the Mayor in showing leadership to provide health care in the City,” Ammiano said. He said that the state had given the City $73 million to help implement the plan.

Mayor Newsom also thanked the labor movement for pushing for health care reform and said that there was an opportunity to enact meaningful reform in 2007. “With the with the governor and state legislature willing to do something, the film Sicko coming out and health care being an issue in the presidential campaign, all these things are coming together,” he said. “In San Francisco, we are doing what hasn’t been done. We are a city that provides health care.” He pointed out that health care costs have risen so that now, “The auto industry pays more for health care than they do for steel. And Toyota moved north to Ontario, Canada, because health care is provided by the government.”

“I remember when the number of people in the U.S. without health insurance was 33 million, in the 1990s.” Newsom said. “Then it was 35 million, then last year 45 million.”

“We’ve got this moment in time; let’s not lose this chance to do something historic in California,” Newsom said. He thanked organized labor for “being a voice for millions of people in the state.”

Also speaking at the rally were Dr. Gordon Fung, past president of the San Francisco Medical Society and Paul Stein, a San Francisco bus driver, who spoke about the struggle he and his co-workers have had in paying skyrocketing health care premiums. Stein said his cost for health insurance had risen from $35 a month to over $400 a month.

Many unions were represented at the San Francisco rally, including members of the Service Employees, Longshore, Transportation Workers, Office and Professional Employees, Electrical Workers, Food and Commercial Workers, Stagehands, Teachers, Glaziers, and Iron Workers unions, as well as the SFBCTC.

Other speakers on the Road to Reform tour included filmmaker included Michael Moore, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, and ER actress Yvette Freeman in Los Angeles and Lieutenant Governor John Garamendi in Sacramento.

It’s Our Healthcare! is a coalition of organizations representing more than 9 million Californians, including AARP, ACORN, California Labor Federation, Consumers Union, Health Access California, CALPIRG, National Council of La Raza, Service Employees International Union and the Congress of California Seniors. For more information check www.calaborfed.org and www.itsOURhealthcare.org.