In union news this week...
• Disability service workers at the Ulster-Greene ARC in New York State voted overwhelmingly to join SEIU Local 200United over the weekend. These 600 workers provide services to more than 1,000 people with developmental disabilities-- epilepsy, traumatic brain injury, autism, Down syndrome and cerebral palsy, to name just a few.
• On Friday, SEIU hosted a myth-busting conference call with HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and thousands of SEIU members across the country. "This is our moment in history and we don't want to look back and say 'if only we had...'" said Sebelius, urging SEIU members to attend local health care town hall meetings and spread the word that those supporting reform need to write letters to their Congressperson or Senator "so our representatives know we need healthcare reform this year."
• Just eight months after U.S. creditors pulled its credit lines and forced the 100 year-old company whose employees make suits for President Obama to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, the Hartmarx purchase is (finally!) finalized...thanks largely to the efforts of Workers United members, who saved the company--and their jobs.
• SEIU 32BJ's Training Fund has developed the first-ever Green Buildings Initiative to train building superintendents in the latest, state-of-the-art, best practices in energy efficiency to foster the greening of NYC's buildings.
• Andy Stern discusses healthcare reform with Roland Martin on the Tom Joyner Morning Show.
• "Fixing our country's health care system is a pressing issue for every American, but it's of critical importance to communities of color," writes CIR/SEIU Healthcare President Dr. L Toni Lewis and SEIU Healthcare Chair Dennis Rivera in a guest op-ed on BlackAmericaWeb.com entitled "Why We Need Healthcare Reform Now."
• The NY Times publishes an op-ed by Dr. L Toni Lewis honoring journalist Sidney Zion's work to uncover the connection between hospital staff hours and medical errors.
• The 1021 NewsWire and other SEIU Local 1021 publications win a total of six awards for excellence in writing, design and production from the International Labor Communications Association (ILCA). Congrats!
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There is a better way to reform health care that will preserve both patient's and doctor's rights.
1. Reform the tort system so there are not "lottery-style" settlements. This will affect costs in two ways:
a. Doctors will not order extra tests to cover themselves in court.
b. Their malpractice insurance will be much, much lower and they will pass on the savings if the environment is competitive.
2. Make health insurance policies portable so that they are not tied to an employer and can travel across state lines. If you could by health insurance like you do car insurance, the prices would be competitive.
Then you can begin to discuss what to do with the 7% of Americans that are not currently insured.
Once you reform health care in this way, then you can discuss weaning the public off of Medicaid and Medicare, which WILL go broke within the next 20 years.
60% is the Average cancer survival rate (all types) for patients in the United States. Canada’s survival rate is significantly lower at 55%, while Europe’s is a dismal 48%.
Why is that?
Overall, according to a study published in Lancet Oncology last year, five-year cancer survival rates are higher in the U.S. than those in Canada. Based on data from the Joint Canada/U.S. Survey of Health (done by Statistics Canada and the U.S. National Center for Health Statistics), Americans have greater access to preventive screening tests and have higher treatment rates for chronic illnesses. No wonder: To limit the growth in health spending, governments restrict the supply of health care by rationing it through waiting. The same survey data show, as June and Paul O’Neill note in a paper published in 2007 in the Forum for Health Economics & Policy, that the poor under socialized medicine seem to be less healthy relative to the nonpoor than their American counterparts.
The government cuts costs by not covering things like pap smears, mammograms, prostate screenings. If you look around online, you can find that while over 90% of American women have had a pap smear, less than 75% of British women had.
I've got health insurance, but some of my friends don't, but they still go to the hosptial when they need to. The hospital has signs all over it that say:
"NO ONE WILL BE DENIED CARE BECAUSE OF INABILITY TO PAY"
So don't tell me we don't take care of sick folks in this country. They may get a bill, but they still get treated.
You can't put a price on your health.
SEIU is still ignoring the over 100 workers that lost their jobs at Nova Southeastern University. Eric Brakken and Kathy Bird (32BJ Miami) do not care about these people. These two individuals are two over-paid people that lack any common hummanity or morality. How can they live with themselves.
I lost my job at Nova and it haunts me everyday that I help lead these workers to their losing their jobs. It is something that bothers me and I will never forget what these workers sacrificed while the staff at SEIU sacrificed nothing, they all kept their jobs.
It is high time that SEIU start to turn things around and start being a workers union run from the bottom up instead of being run by Andy Stern.
And to end this comment, leave UNITEHERE the hell alone, only scum would be doing what you are doing to this union.