About Our Campaign
Our health care system is broken. It may be working for greedy insurance and drug companies – but it sure is not working for workers, retirees or employers. What ails the system can’t be fixed at the bargaining table.
The costs of the American health care system are about double those in other developed countries and rising rapidly. Employers are cutting benefits and shifting more costs to workers. Despite the high costs, the U.S. lags behind other developed countries in key measures of health quality and ranks 37th in the world in delivering quality care. Some 46 million Americans have no health coverage at all, and another 25 million are underinsured, facing out-of-pocket costs they won’t be able to afford.
Even people with good health care benefits – like those of us in CWA – worry what will happen when they retire, or what happens in the next round of bargaining or if their company goes bankrupt or is shipped overseas. You may be okay for now, but each of us knows someone – whether family, friend or co-worker – who has lost coverage, been denied coverage or has been left bankrupt by huge medical bills.
Our health system fails to guarantee its citizens that they will be able to get the health care they need, and it puts American business – especially unionized companies – at a competitive disadvantage. Union employers and workers should not be burdened by freeloading companies that offer no coverage to their employees.
That’s why CWA is making comprehensive health care reform one of its top priorities – training thousands of members to join the Stewards Army and mobilizing them to elect candidates who will get us health care we can all count on. That’s why CWA is reaching out to other labor unions, progressive organizations and, especially, employers, to build partnerships to fix the broken system.
How it Works
CWA's Health Care for All campaign is mobilizing thousands of members to help elect candidates in 2008 who will enact a plan that guarantees quality, affordable health care for all. We also are working closely with some employers who recognize that the health care crisis cannot be solved at the bargaining table.
Starting early in 2008, CWA trained 110 state, regional and congressional district coordinators, who in turn are taking the message of health care reform to locals across the country. These coordinators are building a movement for change by training five percent of CWA's membership in targeted electoral districts.
The training not only covers CWA’s recommendations for how to reform the health care system, it also educates members about the need to make it easier for more workers to join unions by passing the Employee Free Choice Act – so that all workers can win better wages and benefits.
The campaign is building a political infrastructure in every CWA district, 40 states, including 17 Presidential battlegrounds, and 125 congressional districts. And after the election, the local leaders and member activists will hold the officials accountable as Congress and the White House debate how to reform the system.
Step one for our political movement is electing candidates to the White House and Congress in November who are committed to real health care reform. Step two is getting the Employee Free Choice Act passed early in 2009. And Step 3 is getting health care legislation enacted by 2010. Join us!
Latest News
03/17/10 – More and more uninsured: a reminder of why we need health reform
03/15/10 – The role of insurance company profits - the debate in 11 minutes
03/11/10 – Sarah Palin and Rush Limbaugh—reaching for socialized medicine
03/10/10 – Thousands of activists confront insurance company executives
03/08/10 – Selling insurance across state lines: A look at Republican ideas