“In short, organized labor has been the primary defender of the interests of workers, the poor, and the disadvantaged.”—M. Gottschalk
In June of 2006 the Governor signed SB 208, which created a Blue Ribbon Commission on Health Care Reform. Colorado, like a number of other states, finally got tired of waiting for Congress to reform health care and tired of piecemeal reforms. The Blue Ribbon Commission is the best hope for health care reform in a long time. However, without labor playing an active role there is little chance that Colorado can achieve comprehensive health care reform.
The Commission has twenty-four members, appointed by the Speaker of the House, the President of the Senate, the minority leaders in the two houses, and the Governor. It includes members from consumer groups, health care providers, insurance purchasers, health care experts and business. Labor has only one person on the commission—Julia Greene. The Commission will solicit comprehensive reform proposals, select 3-5 of these for analysis by an independent contractor with expertise in evaluating health care plans, hold public hearings across the state, and submit a final recommendation to the General Assembly by January of 2008.
There are two pitfalls in regard to the Commission. First, commissions are established all the time; they do their work and file a report which is usually ignored, without the general public even being aware of their existence. This could happen to the Blue Ribbon Commission. Second, the Commission’s members represent all the stakeholders in health care. They will naturally be defensive when their present advantages are threatened. Unless we can create a strong public support for reform, the work of the Commission will be ignored or the Commission will issue a timid recommendation protecting the vested interests.
The general public is ahead of the pundits and the politicians when it comes to support for major health care reform. We do not need to change public opinion; we need only to enable its expression.
The Colorado Progressive Coalition is working to inform the public and encourage their active involvement. We are holding public health care forums throughout the state, publishing articles and opinion survey results, and cooperating with other organizations.
However, without labor there is little chance of countering the influence of the stakeholders. Only labor and its retiree groups have the numbers and the organization able to create a popular movement for health care reform.
Labor cannot afford to pass up the chance. The broader social vision of labor has too often been forgotten or deliberately ignored by its critics. When labor fails to live up to its larger social responsibility, it leaves itself open to charges that it represents only greedy union workers looking for less work and higher wages.
For the past half century, organized labor has been pursuing two courses: negotiating for union members’ health benefits, and working for universal health care. These goals have sometimes come into conflict. After the World War II, unions’ bargaining for health care benefits created the distinctive American system of private employee sponsored health insurance. Ironically, the system of employer sponsored health benefits created the powerful private insurance industry which has opposed any form of universal health care. While maintaining their focus on members’ benefits, the unions also consistently supported universal health care into the 1970’s.
Despite benefiting from their own “private welfare state,” labor remained committed to universal care and waged an aggressive campaign to create Medicaid and Medicare in the 1960’s. These programs demonstrated what a unified labor movement could accomplish. “The AFL-CIO won Medicare by mobilizing its extensive union network of state federations and local chapters, organizing a grassroots senior citizen’s movement, and supporting Democratic Party members who served on key congressional committees.”
Medicare was a remarkable achievement in that it followed a true universal health care model—except for being restricted to the elderly and disabled. It was hoped that Medicare would be gradually expanded to all age groups, evolving into a complete universal health care system.
Much has changed since the 1970’s—to organized labor and to health care. The reform efforts have now shifted to the state level, and Colorado belongs to a wave of comprehensive reform efforts. For the good of the community—and the good of labor itself—organized labor needs to recover its broad social vision and play a key role in health care reform.
Clark Bouton, PhD
Health Justice Organizer
Colorado Progressive Coalition, www.progressivecoalition.org
Home address: 1005 East Dakota Avenue, Denver, CO 80209
Cell phone: 720-313-5173
Email: cbouton@viawest.net
I am a retired professor of political science and sociology, working on health care issues. |
