PEP, April 2006: Members demand single payer insurance, drug price controls

The union’s new campaign for national health care and drug price controls is already picking up steam.

Since DC 37 Executive Director Lillian Roberts announced the initiative in February, more than 1,000 members and retirees have signed post cards for the campaign. The union hopes to deliver the post cards to Congress members and senators in a bus trip to the nation’s capital in the fall.

“Clearly the Bush administration isn’t sympathetic to national heath care, and his administration’s policies are only worsening the health care crisis in the United States, where an astonishing 45 million people lack coverage,” Roberts said.

“But there is a growing belief in this country that we need universal health care. And we want to play a role in helping to create the political climate to make national health care and the control of drug prices a reality.”

Wanda Williams, director of the DC 37 Political Action and Legislation Dept., reported that the union is distributing cards to the union’s 56 local unions and urging members to sign up at community association meetings and during political and other activities. Roberts kicked off the campaign with a Public Employee Press editorial on the health care crisis that included coupons at the bottom of the page.

Hundreds of members and retirees signed cards March7 during a bus trip to Albany to attend the annual lobby day of DC 37’s national union, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees.

“The costs of drugs are ridiculous,” said Doris Miller, a Local 1549 member. “Even though we have a prescription drug card, many of us still have to pay a lot. There are so many people who don’t have a card at all, and they have to pay the full cost of their drugs. It’s not fair.”

Local 420 retiree Billie Smith, a former Ambulatory Care Technician, said she felt fortunate to have her health care covered through her GHI plan and to be insulated somewhat from the sting of soaring medication prices because she has the union’s prescription drug card.

But she expressed her sadness—and anger—that so many millions of people don’t enjoy her benefits. Smith said the health care crisis hit home for her when a friend lost his health coverage after his employer went bankrupt and he found himself out of work.

“It’s outrageous,” said Smith. “A lot of people need health care. And when you start paying out $40, $50 to $60 for your medications at the pharmacy, you have to go without something else.”

On Feb. 17, during the monthly meeting in Albany of the state’s six AFSCME affiliates, Roberts won the support of the other unions for DC 37’s campaign. All told, the AFSCME affiliates in New York State represent more than 400,000 public employees.

For years, the national union has supported universal health care. During President Clinton’s first term in the 1990s, AFSCME worked closely with the administration on its universal health proposal, which ultimately was doomed because of a backlash from right-wing interests, insurance companies and employer groups, particularly those representing small businesses.

On March 8, the DC 37 Executive Board unanimously backed H.R. 676, the National Health Insurance Act.

Sponsored by U.S. Rep. John Conyers (Dem.-Mich.), the proposal calls for a single-payer health care system. It would expand Medicare to provide health care to all U.S. residents through a publicly financed and privately delivered program. Conyers introduced the bill, which has 68 co-sponsors, in 2003.

—Gregory N. Heires