HEALTH CARE COST CONTAINMENT

WHEREAS, annual health care costs in the United States have increased over 1,000 percent during the past 20 years, and now surpass $1 billion a day; and

WHEREAS, the primary causes of excessive health care expenditures are a wasteful and inflationary fee-for-service system of medical care, a growing for-profit hospital and health care industry, and uncontrolled increases in physician fees, pharmaceutical charges, and capital expenditures; and

WHEREAS, the true victims of health care cost inflation continue to be working people and their families, the elderly and others on fixed incomes, and non-supervisory health care workers:

RESOLVED, that the AFT supports legislation and undertakes other activities to bring about a meaningful system of cost containment that embodies the following principles:

• High quality, affordable and accessible health care is the right of all individuals, irrespective of age, race, gender, national origin, or income.

• Costs must be contained rather than shifted onto consumers and health care workers. Mechanisms must be put into place at the federal and state levels to restrain the prices of physician fees, hospital charges, pharmaceutical, and capital expenditures.

• All providers of health care services--including physicians--and all purchases of health care services must be included under an effective system of cost containment.

• All proposed capital expenditures, as well as reorganization or restructuring schemes, must be subject to strict regulation and control. Special profit allowances and tax breaks for proprietary health care corporations should be eliminated.

• Health financing programs must guarantee sufficient financial support for hospitals, home health care, visiting nurses, and other agencies that provide a high volume of unreimbursed services or serve disproportionately high numbers of low income people.

• Reimbursement formulas must include provisions to assure fair and equitable compensation for health care workers.

• A strong role must be assured for the public sector in the planning, regulation, and delivery of health care services.

• All provider and hospital data concerning accreditation and quality of care reviews, rates and charges, budgetary information, revenues, expenditures, utilization, and contractual arrangements with outside parties (including vendors and consultants) should be required to be made publicly available on a timely and periodic basis. All such data should be required, by law, to be public information.

RESOLVED, that the AFT continues to develop materials and devote staff and other resources in order to assist AFT state federations and locals in achieving through collective bargaining, legislation, regulation, and other appropriate means¾meaningful cost containment that protects the quality of health care and the interests, benefits and working conditions of all AFT members, including health care workers; and

RESOLVED, that AFT notifies all locals of the urgent need to seek both consumer and provider representation by AFT members on local and regional coalition boards dealing with matters of health services.