HEALTH CARE

WHEREAS, the nation's health care crisis affects every AFT member as well as the children, patients and communities our members serve; and

WHEREAS, the AFT is concerned that the health care benefits AFT local unions have won and improved over the decades are now seriously threatened by the nation's skyrocketing health care costs; and

WHEREAS, the pressures resulting from rising health care costs are increasingly hampering our union's ability to represent our members, not only through constantly threatening their current benefits but through requiring salary and other tradeoffs at the bargaining table, depressing our members' standard of living, and menacing their economic security; and

WHEREAS, the AFT is deeply concerned about the effects of the health care crisis on our nation's children, of whom 10 million are now uninsured and whose ability to grow and learn is frustrated by America's failure to provide quality health care for its young; and

WHEREAS, the AFT is also deeply concerned for the health, access to quality care, economic security and standard of living of our retiree members, whose benefits have often been the first target of employer cost cutting and whose medical care costs, particularly long-term care and prescription drugs, threaten a lifetime of work assets; and

WHEREAS, many part-time workers, including many AFT members, are without health care coverage, inadequately covered, and/or struggling under the necessity to pay for a portion or all of their own coverage, especially given employers' attempts to cut costs by hiring part-time workers and refusing to contribute to their health care coverage; and

WHEREAS, attempts to control costs have diminished the quality of care and created hardships for health care workers as well as all other workers; and

WHEREAS, the health care industry is one-seventh of the nation's economy and health care workers are its third-largest workforce, and any restructuring of the health care system will have far-reaching effects on the economic security and health of all Americans; and

WHEREAS, the AFT and especially its health care division have long recognized and worked to reform the nation's costly, wasteful and unfair health care system; and

WHEREAS, the AFT is committed to national health care reform that will:

• guarantee health care coverage for all Americans, including part-timers and retirees; and

• control costs; and

• improve the quality of American health care and delivery systems; and

• require all employers to contribute to health care coverage for employees, including part-time employees; and

• cut the outrageous waste in our current system of health care delivery; and

• protect our members' right to choice of providers and comprehensive health plans; and

• meet the needs of America's children for uninterrupted access to quality health care, including preventive care; and

• involve health care workers in the implementation of reform and protect their collective bargaining and workplace rights; and

WHEREAS, the scope of the health care crisis and the growth of health care inflation are too large to be dealt with at the bargaining table and can be addressed effectively only through national legislation; and

WHEREAS, the Clinton administration and the McDermott-Wellstone Act have developed a health care plan that is built on the above-listed principles for national health care reform to which AFT is committed:

RESOLVED, that the AFT mobilize at the local, state and national level to support health care reform centered on the principles listed above; and

RESOLVED, that the AFT work with the AFL-CIO, the Clinton administration and the Congress for a national health care plan that guarantees unions the ability through the collective bargaining process to protect the level of benefits and the range of choice of providers and plans our members have earned and enjoy; and

RESOLVED, that the AFT continue to voice our opposition to the taxation of employee benefits; and

RESOLVED, that the AFT support efforts to ensure that national health care legislation and regulations include provisions against inadequate and inappropriate staffing in health care settings, the erosion of professional standards and the elimination of necessary health care worker positions; and

RESOLVED, that the AFT through the Department of Labor, health care reform legislation and regulations, labor law reform, and/or separate legislation, work to protect against the elimination of necessary health care jobs, and to provide transitional assistance to safeguard the collective bargaining rights, jobs and future of the health care workforce; and

RESOLVED, that the AFT work to protect and expand the role of school nurses in school-based and school-linked health care services; and

RESOLVED, that the AFT continue our strong support for national reform that addresses the health needs of the children, patients and communities our members work with every day; and

RESOLVED, that the AFT work with the AFL-CIO and other national organizations, the Clinton administration and the Congress to protect the principles now included in the plan so that the plan meets the concerns and needs of AFT members and the people we serve; monitor the progress of the health care legislation; maintain constant contact with AFT members about that progress; and mobilize AFT members on behalf of the Clinton administration’s National Health Security Act and the McDermott-Wellstone Act and any other bills that meet AFT’s principles. Further, recognizing the special expertise of our members who are health care professionals, that the AFT utilize and involve them in all the efforts listed directly above.