As crucial votes on health care reform near in the Senate, CWA's Health Care Campaign - which has been pretty intense for more than a year - is stepping up even more.
Here's some of what's going on this week:
CWA President Larry Cohen was among about half a dozen labor leaders who met with key health policy and political aides at the White House Monday. The message from the union officials: Don't tax our benefits.
Local CWA activists from Florida, Virginia, North Carolina, Indiana, Ohio, Arkansas, Missouri and California are participating this week in an AFL-CIO "fly-in," coming to Washington for meeting Wednesday and Thursday with their senators and representatives.
A worksite phone-in campaign, which generated 1,800 calls to the Seante last week, will continue. More calls will provide important back-up for the "fly-in" activists by showing elected officials that lots of voters care about health reform that fixes the system and doesn't tax benefits. Members are asked to call 1-888-580-0792 to be connected with their senators.
CWA has launched an internet ad campaign, called "a pretty innovative advancement for a union" by the Web site FireDogLake. The ads feature CWA members talking about how they can't afford a tax on benefits.
The House of Representatives passed H.R. 3962, the CWA-endorsed health reform bill, late Saturday night.
"The House reform plan will provide enormous benefits to our nation," said CWA President Larry Cohen. "Workers won't fear the loss of health care for themselves and their families if they are laid off or change jobs. Pre-Medicare retirees will be protected against cutbacks in their health care benefits. And the House plan includes effective restraints on escalating health care costs, which has driven up costs for working families and made American businesses less competitive."
"This is a truly historic moment and one that many of us have been fighting for decades to achieve," AFL-CIO President Rich Trumka said. He said the bill "will end insurance company abuses, require employers to pay a fair share and establish a strong public option to lower costs and make insurance companies compete. And it won't tax the benefits of hard-working middle class families."
"For years we've been told that this couldn't be done," President Obama said. "Moments like this are why they sent us here."
The margin of victory was razor-thin, 220 to 215. That means that each of us who made phone calls, wrote letters or stood with a sign made a difference. Where do we go from here?
First, if your representative voted for the bill, take a minute to thank him or her. And after the call, please click here to let CWA know.
Next, the attention turns to the Senate, where a different reform bill is expected to come up for debate sometime in the next few weeks. As the Senate considers amendments, we'll be trying to make the bill better. Then, we want the Senate to pass a bill, triggering a conference committee to work out differences between the House and Senate versions. The conference committee's version of the bill would then come back to both houses for a vote and for President Obama's signature.
The margin is likely to be just as tight in the Senate. The insurance companies and their army of lobbyists will be spending millions of dollars to battle for every vote. We'll need to push just as hard to get a good bill passed.
A new CWA video features Betty Diamond, a CWA member from Lake Worth, FL who is a two-time cancer survivor.
In the video, she talks about the need for health reform to help control costs and to require all employers to pay their fair share toward coverage. With employers required to meet their responsibility, she says, we will have "a level playing field:" Her employer won't have to compete with companies that cut costs by offering cheap benefits or no benefits. And CWA won't have to fight so hard in bargaining to hold onto good benefits, allowing us to work on other priorities.
Watch the video, and share it with other members. It video asks members to go to CWA's new Mobile Activist feature to contact members of the House of Representatives to support reform, especially the new House reform bill, H.R. 3962. The bill could come to the House floor as early as this week, and the vote could be close, so calls matter now.
Leadership in the House of Representatives unveiled their version of the health reform bill late last week. It's basically the same as H.R. 3200 already endorsed by CWA. Because three different House committees passed slightly different versions, Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other leaders had to merge them into a new single bill.
Instead of taxing benefits, as a Senate bill would, the House bill raises money by a small increase in income tax for individuals making more than $500,000 a year and families making more than $1 million, the New York Times reported.
It also includes a public option to compete with private insurance companies; people who need insurance could shop for a public or private plan through an insurance exchange. It requires employers (with some exceptions for small ones) to pay their fair share for coverage. And it protects pre-Medicare retirees.
Larry Cohen, president of CWA, and Ron Gettelfinger, president of the United Auto Workers, immediately endorsed the bill in a joint letter to Congress:
"CWA and UAW believe that the foregoing reforms would provide enormous benefits to our nation. Workers would no longer have to fear the loss of health care for themselves and their families if they are laid off. Pre-Medicare retirees would be less vulnerable to cutbacks in their health care benefits. There also would be more effective restraints on the constant escalation in health care costs, which has driven up deductibles, copays and premiums for working families and made American businesses less competitive."
Improves Medicare benefits by ending out-of-pocket charges for preventive services; by beginning to close the Medicare "donut hole," which leaves millions of seniors without prescription coverage for part of each year; and by prohibiting private insurance companies from charging higher co-pays for Medicare services than traditional Medicare does.
Creates a temporary program to help the uninsured until the exchanges can be set up.
Stops insurers from putting limits on lifetime coverage and from cancelling policies when members get sick.
Allows young people to stay on their parents' health plan until they turn 27.
Discourages excessive price increases by insurance companies through review and disclosure of insurance rate increases.
Allows those who have lost their jobs to keep their COBRA coverage until the exchange is in place.
Creates a long-term care insurance program to be financed by voluntary payroll deductions.
Creates a $10 billon fund to finance a temporary reinsurance program to help offset the costs of expensive health claims for employers that provide health benefits for retirees age 55-64.
Increases funding for Community Health Centers to allow them to see twice as many patients.
Provides funds to increase the number of primary care doctors, nurses, and public health professionals.
Organizing for America, the successor organization to the Obama election campaign, invited people to design their own 30-second videos to support health reform. The best will be aired as a television commercial.
They've picked 20 finalists, and you can rate each one at the OFA Web site. Voting continues until next Friday, Nov. 6.
"The top 20 ads will also be voted on by our panel of experts and artists, including Black Eyed Peas frontman will.i.am, animator and director Seth MacFarlane, actress Kate Walsh, Obama for America campaign manager David Plouffe, and Democratic National Committee Chairman Tim Kaine," OFA said in announcing the vote.
"It couldn't be more urgent for us to get these funny, powerful, and eye-opening messages out to the public," OFA continued. "As the full Congress begins its final debate on reform, airing the winning video as an ad on national television could help tip the balance toward enacting the changes they've been talking about for years in Washington."
The Senate Majority Leader, Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said this week he will include a public insurance option - with states having the choice of not participating - in the health reform bill he will bring to the Senate floor. It's a change for Reid, who is recent weeks had indicated he would not go with a public option, similar to Medicare for people under 65, to compete with private insurance companies.
The inclusion of a public option at this stage shows that our efforts are having an impact - but we've got to keep pushing to get the best bill we can.
"Organized labor is flexing its muscle in Senate negotiations over healthcare reform and winning important concessions," the Washington newspaper The Hill reported when Reid made his announcement. In his version of the reform bill, Reid is also "raising the taxable level on high-cost insurance plans; and increasing the penalty for those companies that fail to provide health insurance to employees," The Hill said.
We need to keep pushing for two reasons.
First, while the changes are an improvement, they're not enough of an improvement. A lesser tax on our benefits is still a tax on our benefits. Things are moving in the right direction, but we need to move them further.
Second, the situation is still fluid. Reid has sent proposals to the Congressional Budget Office to estimate their cost. Until he gets those estimates, the bill isn't set in stone, and voices of support or opposition can still have an impact.
Reid's final bill will be a merged version of bills from the Senate Finance Committee - a bill with serious flaws - and the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee. Even when Reid finishes his version of the bill, the game isn't over. The bill can be amended on the Senate floor, and needs to attract enough support to survive a filibuster.
Also, the House reform bill, H.R. 3200, will be going to the House floor. CWA supports this bill because it taxes millionaires instead of taxing our benefits, because it requires all employers to pay their fair share, because it includes a strong public option, and protects pre-Medicare retirees.
When the House and Senate pass different reform bills, they'll go to a conference committee to be combined, and then will go back to both houses for final votes. The process is likely to run through November and into December, with several important decision points along the way.
Helping to fight the proposed tax on our benefits, CWA and its lobbying partner, the United Auto Workers, have financed a series of video and print ads.
The ads were produced by Health Care for America Now, a coalition of which CWA is a member. Other members of the coalition include labor, medical, professional and progressive organizations.
While not dropping its other priorities, CWA is focusing on the tax. A study by the research department shows that the proposed levy would become a large tax on the middle class. It would hit about 40 percent of health plans within six years, according to the congressional Joint Committee on Taxation. The average impact on typical family plans of CWA members would be more than $19,000 in taxes over ten years, according to the report, or $1,900 a year.
While the tax would be directed at employers, the employers, in turn, would seek to cut benefits to avoid the extra costs, the report says. Employers can't cut our benefits unilaterally - they're protected by contract - but we can expect future bargaining to get even tougher.
Health reform bills are taking shape, so this is a really important time to speak up. The bill passed by the Senate Finance Committee would tax our benefits, so this is a really important reason to speak up.
Tomorrow - Wednesday, Oct. 28 - is CWA's national call in day. Call 1-888-580-0792, and you'll be connected to the office of one of your Senators.
The impact of the benefits tax on typical CWA members would be $1,900 a year for those with family insurance, based on the Finance Committee bill. We're hearing that the Senate leadership is planning to make it less onerous - a sign that our pressure is having an effect. But a revised tax on our benefits is still a tax on our benefits.
We've got to keep up the pressure and knock out the tax altogether.
Although this tax is being sold as applying to "Cadillac" benefits, data from the Congressional Joint Committee on Taxation shows that it would hit a third of all health plans; in other words, it will cut deep into the middle class.
CWA strongly supports health reform, but taxing the benefits of working families is the wrong way to pay for it. All employers and wealthy individuals need to pay their fair share. CWA supports the House of Representatives health reform bill, with a strong requirement that all employers pay their fair share and with a "millionaires' tax" instead of a benefits tax. It also offers a strong public option to compete with private insurance companies and protects pre-Medicare retirees.
Note: The following report was sent in by Robert Longer, vice president of Local 9421 in Sacrramento. We invite others to send reports, pictures and links to news reports for Health Care Voices to Bill Salganik at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address). You can also read about more CWA actions in this report.
CWA Local 9421 partnered with the Sacramento Central Labor Council (a coalition of 160,000 Union members in the greater Sacramento area), Health Care for America Now (HCAN), and Organizing For America (OFA) in a big event for health care reform: an overnight vigil, fast and phone bank in front of the Federal building in downtown Sacramento. The purpose of the event was to urge the Senate to pass a real--not watered-down--health care reform bill. Our message: any final health care reform bill must have a public option, must require every employer to participate and must not tax our benefits!
A rally and kickoff event were held at 5 p.m. Oct. 19 with guest speakers; about 70 people showed up. Elected officials CA Assembly Majority Leader Alberto Torrico, CA Assemblymember Alyson Huber both spoke, along with Sacramento City Councilmember Kevin McCarty. Also speaking were Sandy Adams with OFA, and Bill Camp, executive secretary of the Sacramento Central Labor Council. The media was there to cover this too.
OFA had a huge 'health care stories' quilt on display and CWA Local 9421 had a giant insurance company puppet; both caught the attention of the media and commute traffic, as passersby honked in support.
At 9pm, faith/religious leaders and about 40 people formed a circle; each and every person in the circle held a candle and shared their personal health care story, many of which were very moving. The media was again present to cover this.
After the vigil, a dozen committed to fasting stayed and camped out in front of the Federal building, sleeping on the sidewalk in chairs and sleeping bags throughout the cold and windy night. The media covered this too, along with conducting several interviews; both Robert Longer, CWA Local 9421 vice president and Jeanie McKoy, CWA Local 9421 Steward were interviewed; both also stayed the night and fasted too.
On the morning of Tuesday, October the 20th, the fasters/campers woke up to TV cameras at 4:30am; there were live broadcasts by several TV news stations. Then, at 6:00am, the 24-hour fast was broken and the dozen fasters were joined by a group of a dozen or so others, including CA Assemblymember Mariko Yamada and Dr. Ami Bera, candidate for Congress in the 3rd congressional district; both spoke. Then Bill Camp, Executive Secretary of the Sacramento Central Labor Council passed bread around the circle; everyone broke bread to end the fast, as Reverend Dexter McNamara of the Interfaith Services Bureau eloquently spoke.
After the fast was broken, the two-dozen or so took out their cell phones and called Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) to thank her for supporting the public option, but also urged her to ensure that every employer participates (pays or plays) and ensure that benefits must not be taxed.
All in all, this event was a huge success, and showed that a group of concerned CWAers and our coalition partners can make a difference.
As Congress reaches the final stages of shaping and debating health reform legislation, CWA members across the country have written thousands of letters, made thousands of phone calls and participated in a variety of actions across the country.
You can read a first person report from one of the participants in a health care vigil, Robert Longer, vice president of Local 9421 in Sacramento. We invite others to send accounts, pictures and links to news reports for Health Care Voices to Bill Salganik at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).
Among the recent demonstrations with CWA participation:
About a dozen members of Locals 6300, 6355 and 36047 joined a in rush hour action supporting health reforms at eight major intersections in St. Louis. Two other members of Local 6355 also joined a similar action at an intersection in Kansas City. Both were part of the Jobs with Justice national day of action on Oct. 20. Members of Local 6355 have also been handbilling at job sites to generate calls to Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.), a supporter of health reform who is a potential swing vote on some details of the bill. Bradley Harmon, coordinator for Local 6355, and Shannon Duffy, from Local 36047 (The St. Louis Newspaper Guild) were among the people interviewed for the televised news report.
Members of Local 3108 in Orlando were among about two dozen union members and retirees who made a surprise visit to the office of Rep. Suzanne Kosmas (D-Fla.), who is uncommitted on health reform. "She's not for reform," one of the participants, Jennifer Kenne with the Alliance for Retired Americans, told tv station WDBO. "She won't make any commitments, and we want a public option." The action was coordinated by Health Care for America Now, a reform coalition of which CWA is a member. Kosmas was not at the office, but members will be meeting with her in early November to try to win a commitment to reform, according Joy Edery, coordinator for Local 3122 in Miami.
CWA members were among hundreds from the AFL-CIO who demonstrated outside a Washington meeting of the health insurance lobby, America's Health Insurance Plans. Linda Foley, former president of TNG/CWA, was among thje participants quoted in a report by NPR. HCAN held a press conference with speakers who had been victimized by insurers, such as Courtney Atnip from Tennessee, who said her insurance company had denied her the medication she needed for an intestinal disorder, causing her condition to worsen and leading to surgery and other treatments costing $750,000.
