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 How to best extend health coverage to millions of uninsured or
under-insured Americans has been one of the early issues defining
the Democratic nominating contest to take on Republican President
Donald Trump in November 2020.
The issue is increasingly cropping up on the campaign trail as the
20 candidates still vying to become the Democratic nominee compete
for support from unionized workers and official endorsements that
can lead to critical on-the-ground resources.
"There's no question that ultimately we need to establish a
single-payer system, but there has to be a role for those hard,
hard-fought-for, high-quality plans that we've negotiated," Trumka
told reporters at an event hosted by the Christian Science Monitor.
"You can't ask the American worker, who sacrificed wages and
everything, to simply say: 'Okay, I'll accept this plan here,'"
Trumka added, noting that some union plans likely provide more
benefits than Medicare.
Progressive U.S. Senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren have
favored a Medicare for All approach that would extend the existing,
government-run Medicare health insurance program to all Americans,
largely eliminating a role for private insurance. Medicare currently
serves Americans aged 65 and older.
Moderate candidates such as former Vice President Joe Biden and U.S.
Senator Michael Bennet prefer taking a more incremental approach
that would create a so-called "public option" allowing people to
enroll in a government healthcare plan that would exist alongside
private insurance.
Still others, including U.S. Senators Kamala Harris and Cory Booker,
have modified their healthcare proposals, after backing Sanders'
Medicare for All bill in the Senate, to preserve some role for
private insurance, even if for a limited time.
Candidates have invoked union-negotiated health insurance as one
reason why a public option is preferable to the Medicare for All
proposals offered by their rivals.
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"If you have a generous union-backed plan and you have given up
union wages to get that plan, you can keep it," Biden said last week
at Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire.
Most national unions, including the AFL-CIO, which is a federation
of more than 50 unions that collectively represent more than 12
million workers, have yet to back a candidate.
Sanders won his first national endorsement this week from the
35,000-member United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of
America. Biden in April secured an endorsement from the
International Association of Firefighters, which has more than
300,000 members.
Sanders, after speaking to the Iowa Federation of Labor last week,
updated his campaign website to show that his Medicare for All
legislation would allow unions to renegotiate their contracts in a
government-overseen process and seek plans for additional services
not covered by Medicare.
His "Workplace Democracy" proposal now states that there will be a
"fair transition to Medicare for All" that will "require that
resulting healthcare savings from union-negotiated plans result in
wage increases and additional benefits for workers during the
transition."
Trumka called it a "positive sign" that candidates seem to be
listening to union workers and are integrating their feedback into
policy proposals.
"It's going to generate huge savings for employers," Trumka said of
transitioning to a single-payer system. "The question will be: What
happens to the savings?"
"What we're saying is our plans, we've negotiated hard ... there has
to be a way for us to recoup that."
(Reporting by Amanda Becker in Washington; additional reporting by
Jarrett Renshaw in New Hampshire; Editing by Colleen Jenkins and
Bill Berkrot)
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