Idaho AFL-CIO endorses HR 676, National Single Payer Health Care

From UnionsForSinglePayer.org

Rian Van Leuven, President of the Idaho State AFL-CIO, announced that on June 12, 2013, the delegates to the 55th Annual Idaho State AFL-CIO Convention passed a resolution to publicly endorse and support H.R. 676, Single Payer Healthcare.

Further the resolution states “That the Idaho State AFL-CIO will develop working relationships with community organizations in Idaho which advocate for single-payer healthcare and Medicaid expansion.”

Louis Schlickman, MD, an Idaho physician who practices in Meridian and is Co Chair of the Physicians for a National Health Program state chapter, showed the movie Escape Fire and made a single payer presentation to the convention prior to the passage of the resolution.

After the resolution for HR 676 was passed by the Idaho State AFL-CIO Convention, Dr. Schlickman stated that, “Collectively we are all realizing that unions in general can play a huge role in helping others, not just union workers, see the merit in a single payer financing system of care.”

Dr. Schlickman observed that union members “have seen how one unexpected illness or injury leads to significant catastrophes of health and income status. And most important, they understand the issue of solidarity.”

Idaho is the 43rd State AFL-CIO Federation to endorse HR 676, which was introduced into the 113th Congress by Representative John Conyers (D MI). The bill is subtitled Expanded and Improved Medicare for All.

4 Comments

  1. Carla Skidmore, RN on July 3, 2013 at 3:57 pm

    Winston Churchill is often quoted as saying, “The Americans get everything right, BUT not before trying everything else, first!” So it is with health care. Hillary Clinton tried to institute a Medicare for All, type of health care, but was excoriated by the Republicans. The Republicans thought that they very same health care plan that both Mitt Romney had in MA and President Obama has with the ACA. However, when Romney ran, thankfully unsuccessfully, for president, he disavowed that plan. Now, the recalcitrant Republicans want nothing to do with their very own plan, the ACA. Go figure.



    • John Barker on July 5, 2013 at 1:41 pm

      Winston Churchill said it a little more eloquently “Americans can be entrusted to do the right thing, once they have tried all other options”. He wasn’t referring to health care but it so appropriate to the American health care system. ACA is only the latest of the wrong Rube Golberg solutions Americans are trying which has so many unnecessary useless parts that it will eventually run off the rails collapsing in an unsalvageable heap as all these Rube Golberg solutions have done for nearly 50 years except for the right one–Improved Medicare for All.



  2. Carla Skidmore, RN on July 3, 2013 at 4:04 pm

    PS
    What our president would really like and what so many other countries have is a single payer system. Yes, folks, we need a Medicare for All type of health care. As long as you include the insurance companies in health care you will have an unwieldy, expensive, convoluted type of health care.

    PS
    My first reply was send too soon. Because, frankly, what we need in this nation is what so many other developed nations have, a single payer system of health care. Yes, a Medicare for ALl, type of health care. I am sorry to have to say this, but if we include insurance companies without very stringent regulations the program will be convoluted and very expensive. Insurance companies will raise and have raised their premiums when they learn that they cannot deny care to people with preexisting conditions, or they cannot cap your coverage, or that they must insure young people on their parents’ plans until that young person is 26. Yes, folks we sorely need Medicare for All.

    s



  3. Victoria on July 4, 2013 at 1:02 am

    Sure, I could insure my unemployed under-25 year old son on my plan, if I want to spend $200/month to do so. We can’t afford it. I’m happy some people can, but there are way too many uninsured young people in the country.
    I’m sure the president “would really like” a single payer health care plan, but he sure didn’t stand up for one. He backed down and gave the insurance companies what they wanted. Wonder what they gave him in return?