Dear CWA Member,

In the past eight years, premiums have doubled, and the number of uninsured has increased by nearly 10 million.  In addition to 46 million uninsured, there are at least 25 million underinsured – those with coverage that leaves them with out-of-pocket costs they can't pay.  Fewer employers are offering health coverage to their employees and fewer still are offering it to retirees.  Those workers and retirees who still have coverage are paying more and more out of pocket for fewer benefits.  Many families are struggling with medical debt, a key factor in about half of bankruptcies and foreclosures. As a nation, we spend nearly twice as much as other developed countries – although those lower-spending countries cover all their people.  In spite of the spending, results for our system are mediocre at best – for example, the U.S. ranks 29th in the world in infant mortality, tied with Poland and Slovakia.

As CWA members, we're better off than most Americans. Most of us have contracts that guarantee good health coverage at a cost we can afford.  But bargaining is too often focused on holding onto the benefits that active workers and retirees have already, making it more difficult to win improvements in other areas.  And our employers are at a competitive disadvantage, compared to non-union companies with cheaper benefits and compared to foreign competitors where workers enjoy government-provided coverage. That threatens our jobs over time.

How do we fix the system?  By electing a president and Congress who are committed to real reform according to CWA's principles – affordable, quality coverage for all, with a strong government role to make sure insurance companies treat patients fairly.

John McCain and Barack Obama offer very different answers.  John McCain says health care is a responsibility.  Barack Obama says health care is a right.

McCain wants to move away from employer-provided coverage to the individual market, where he says people will have more choice. Unfortunately, the individual market means no choice for many people; insurance companies won't sell an individual policy to someone who is sick, or who they think might get sick.  McCain, as a cancer survivor, wouldn't be able to buy a policy himself.  Even if you can buy coverage in the individual market, it's generally more expensive than employer coverage and offers thinner benefits.  And McCain wants to deregulate the individual insurance market further, so there would be no government referee to get the insurance companies to treat patients fairly.

McCain sugarcoats the package by offering tax credits of $5,000 for a family to buy insurance.  But there's no free lunch.  He pays for these tax credits in two ways.  One is taxing employer-provided benefits.  If you make $60,000, and get $12,000 worth of benefits from your employer, you'd pay income tax as if you made $72,000.  Most CWA members would end up paying more tax, according to a CWA analysis.  The other way he'd pay for the tax credits is by making cuts in Medicare and Medicaid – more than a billion dollars worth over the next decade, according to estimates by independent experts.

Under Barack Obama's plan, those of us with good benefits could keep what we have – and we wouldn't have to pay taxes on those benefits.  Those who don't have coverage now, or are underinsured, would be able to buy coverage equivalent to what McCain and Obama get as members of Congress, choosing between private insurance and a government-run plan like Medicare.  Insurance companies wouldn't be allowed to refuse or cancel coverage for sick people.  Low-income people and small businesses would get subsidies to make coverage affordable.  And it would be paid for by repealing the Bush tax cuts on people making more than $250,000 a year.

The status quo is unacceptable.  Unleashing insurance companies and taxing benefits is not the solution.

After decades of talk – while employers trimmed benefits and families struggled to pay for the health care they need – we can cast a vote Tuesday that makes it possible to fix the system.  We can cast a vote for a president and Congress who are committed to giving us the health care system we need.  We can cast a vote for affordable, quality coverage for all Americans.

In Unity,

Bill Salganik
CWA Health Care Campaign