On February 25, 2013, the Executive Board of the Rhode Island AFL-CIO
unanimously endorsed HR 676, Expanded and Improved Medicare for All, the
national single payer legislation recently reintroduced into Congress by
Rep. John Conyers, Jr. (D. MI).
George Nee, President of the Rhode Island AFL-CIO stated, “Year after
year America continues to spend more and get less in return for our broken
health care system, something must be done. The Rhode Island AFL-CIO
strongly supports single-payer national health care as a way to insure all
Americans, cut wasteful spending out of our health care system, and
contain costs in a system where prices are spinning out of control. All
Americans should have access to high quality affordable health care, that
does not jeopardize the financial or physical well-being of themselves,
their families, or the companies they work for.â€
The vote followed a presentation on single payer health care by J. Mark
Ryan, MD, FACP, President of the state chapter of Physicians for a
National Health Program (PNHP). Dr. Ryan is an internist in Providence
where he provides primary care at the University Medicine Foundation. “I
was very impressed at how knowledgeable the Executive Board members were
about HR 676 and the benefits of single payer national health care,” Dr.
Ryan told the All Unions Committee.
The Rhode Island AFL-CIO is the umbrella organization for more than 250
local unions which represent over 80,000 working men and women across the
state. The story on the RI AFL-CIO website is here:
http://riaflcio.org/story/rhode-island-afl-cio-executive-board-adopts-resolutions
HR 676 would institute a single payer health care system by expanding a
greatly improved Medicare to everyone residing in the U. S.
HR 676 would cover every person for all necessary medical care including
prescription drugs, hospital, surgical, outpatient services, primary and
preventive care, emergency services, dental (including oral surgery,
periodontics, endodontics), mental health, home health, physical therapy,
rehabilitation (including for substance abuse), vision care and
correction, hearing services including hearing aids, chiropractic, durable
medical equipment, palliative care, podiatric care, and long term care.
HR 676 ends deductibles and co-payments. HR 676 would save hundreds of
billions annually by eliminating the high overhead and profits of the
private health insurance industry and HMOs.
In the current 113th Congress, HR 676 has 41 co-sponsors in addition to
Conyers.
HR 676 has been endorsed by 598 union organizations including 144 Central
Labor Councils/Area Labor Federations and 41 state AFL-CIO’s (KY, PA, CT,
OH, DE, ND, WA, SC, WY, VT, FL, WI, WV, SD, NC, MO, MN, ME, AR, MD-DC, TX,
IA, AZ, TN, OR, GA, OK, KS, CO, IN, AL, CA, AK, MI, MT, NE, NJ, NY, NV,
MA, & RI).
For further information, a list of union endorsers, or a sample
endorsement resolution, contact:
Kay Tillow
All Unions Committee for Single Payer Health Care–HR 676
c/o Nurses Professional Organization (NPO)
1169 Eastern Parkway, Suite 2218
Louisville, KY 40217
(502) 636 1551
Email: nursenpo@aol.com
http://unionsforsinglepayer.org
3/17/2013
