Two more California Labor Councils have endorsed HR 676, single payer health care legislation introduced by Congressman John Conyers (D-MI).

In Fresno, the Central Labor Council of Fresno, Madera, Tulare & King Counties has also endorsed HR 676, reports Randy Ghan, Council Executive Secretary Treasurer.

by Randy Shannon

March 31, 2009

SEIU members and Butler concerned citizens and nursing home residents held a march and rally to protest the proposed sale of the Butler County owned Sunnyview Nursing Home to private interests.

Continue reading Butler, PA SEIU Workers, Citizens, and Nursing Home Residents Oppose the Sale of Sunnyview Nursing Homes →

Bill Moyers interviews William K. Black, a professor of economics and law, an expert in criminal fraud, prosecutor of the S&L bandits, and the man who exposed the Keating 5, the Congressmen and Senators who took bribes to facilitate the S&L fraud. The straightforward and profound revelations by Mr. Black  clarify the economic and political nature of the current financial crisis. And his solutions just make plain sense. Listen closely, read the transcript, and please pass this along to everyone you know. The knowledge shared here is very powerful.

Randy Shannon

go to the next page for the rest of the interview

Continue reading Bill Moyers Journal: The Credit Fraud, The Crash, The Bailout, and The Ongoing Coverup Explained →

Portland, OR   Laborers Local 483 (LIUNA) has endorsed HR 676, single
payer healthcare legislation introduced by Congressman John Conyers
(D-MI).  The local represents 900 City of Portland workers in the
Maintenance, Parks and Environmental Services Bureau.

Wesley Buchholz, Director of Political Action for the local who made the
presentation to the membership meeting, said:  “Like the rest of the
nation we are in dire economic times and facing layoffs.  Relief must come
for all working people.  HR 676 is the most sensible way to provide
massive aid both economic and physical.  Our members want to add their
voices to the demand for social and economic justice and join this
groundswell movement attempting to amend the tyrannical system that values
profits before people.”

Is a public Medicare-like option in a market of private plans a viable solution?

Response by Drs. David Himmelstein and Steffie Woolhandler:

The “public plan option” won’t work to fix the health care system for 2 reasons.

1 – It foregoes at least 84% of the administrative savings available through single payer. The public plan option would do nothing to streamline the administrative tasks (and costs) of hospitals, physicians offices, and nursing homes, which would still contend with multiple payers, and hence still need the complex cost tracking and billing apparatus that drives administrative costs. These unnecessary provider administrative costs account for the vast majority of bureaucratic waste. Hence, even 95% of Americans who are currently privately insured were to join the public plan (and it had overhead costs at current Medicare levels), the savings on insurance overhead would amount to only 16% of the roughly $400 billion annually achievable through single payer – not enough to make reform affordable.

2 – A quarter century of experience with public/private competition in the Medicare program demonstrates that the private plans will not allow a level playing field. Despite strict regulation, private insurers have successfully cherry picked healthier seniors, and have exploited regional health spending differences to their advantage. They have progressively undermined the public plan – which started as the single payer for seniors and has now become a funding mechanism for HMOs – and a place to dump the unprofitably ill. A public plan option does not lead toward single payer, but toward the segregation of patients; with profitable ones in private plans and unprofitable ones in the public plan.

By Tim WheelerPeople’s Weekly World

New York—About 10,000 protesters marched through the Wall Street financial district April 4 chanting “Money for Healthcare not for war, that is what we’re marching for.”

It was the 42st anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King’s famed “Beyond Vietnam” speech at Riverside Church April 4, 1967. Many banners and signs bore photos of Dr. King with the message “Beyond War, A New Economy is Possible. Yes We Can.”
The marchers assembled on Broadway above Canal Street and streamed down the avenue at noon led by a contingent of Veterans for Peace, Military Families Speak Out, and Iraq Veterans Against the War. “Hands off Afghanistan” “Fund Human Needs not War” and “Give Me A J-O-B so I can E-A-T” were some of the thousands of signs and placards.

Rose Taylor of Baltimore was one of many people in wheelchairs who rolled past the New York Stock Exchange. She was holding a sign that read, “We Need a People’s Bank.”

Continue reading Wall Street Echoes People’s Cry: “Healthcare Not Warfare!” →

Lexington, Kentucky.   The Central Kentucky Building & Construction Trades Council has endorsed HR 676, single payer healthcare legislation introduced by Congressman John Conyers (D-MI), reports Council President Robert Akin.

The endorsement resolution said in part:  “The cost of healthcare continues to spiral out of control with no end in sight damaging families’ economic stability and adding tremendous burdens on the U.S. to compete in the world economically.  As long as health care is treated as a for profit commodity this will never end.”

“We hereby resolve that the Central Kentucky Building & Construction Trades Council endorses HR 676 which will provide for a single payer universal health care system to cover all of the citizens of the U.S,” the resolution continued.  “We encourage all elected officials from local, state and national governments to support this common sense, equal to all, and just effort to solve one of the greatest problems that the U.S.A. faces at this time,” the resolution concluded.

PARIS, France (CNN) — Hundreds of French workers, angry about proposed layoffs at a Caterpillar factory, were holding executives of the company hostage Tuesday, a spokesman for the workers said.

The latest incident started Tuesday morning at the office of the construction equipment company in the southeastern city of Grenoble.

The workers were angry that Caterpillar had proposed cutting more than 700 jobs and would not negotiate, said Nicolas Benoit, a spokesman for the workers’ union.

Continue reading Hundreds of French workers take bosses hostage →

Houston, Texas. 

IAMAW Local Lodge 2339H in Houston, representing 5,000 flight attendants at Continental and Express Jet Airlines, is the 500th union organization to endorse HR 676, single payer healthcare legislation introduced by Congressman John Conyers (D-MI).

Christine Diaz, the Local’s Legislative Committee Chairperson, said:  “It was important for our local to stand in solidarity with the hundreds of
other labor organizations who have already endorsed HR 676.  We are going to win this fight at the grass roots level, and it is going to take
educating not only our members, but the general public, on the truth about single payer health care.”

Rosalie Canton, President of Local Lodge 2339H, said:  “When our membership has to stop work for whatever reason, it is not uncommon to
hear, ‘Well, I will just have to risk not having health insurance for three months.  I cannot afford to pay for COBRA.’  The system must change
so that your health insurance is not tied to your employer.  It just doesn’t work anymore.”

The Legislative Committee has met with Rep. Gene Green but has not yet secured his agreement to sign on as a co-sponsor of HR 676.