Vincent Navarro, The Inhuman State of US Health Care, Monthly Review vol. 44, no. 4 (Sept. 2003)

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How does class power explain the U.S. health sector? Very easily. The United States is alone among the developed capitalist countries in not having a national health program, a universal health care program funded by the government or by social security. The United States is also the only country in the developed world where most people get their health benefits coverage through their employer. This unique situation is rooted in the Taft-Hartley Act, which basically legislated that the working people of this country should have their health benefits coverage through highly decentralized collective bargaining agreements. This explains why the steelworkers in Baltimore, who have strong unions, have fairly comprehensive health benefits coverage, while the clerks in the local supermarket, who don’t have a union, have pretty lousy health benefits coverage or no coverage at all. Let me point out, though, that even those sectors with the best coverage, like the steelworkers, have much less coverage than their fellow workers in all other developed capitalist countries. Moreover, in the United States, even these workers are losing their coverage in today’s anti-union climate. Today steelworkers pay 32 percent of all their medical care costs as out-of-pocket expenses, a 50 percent increase over just five years ago. The deterioration of the economic situation is having an enormous human cost. More than one million people (mostly workers and their families) lose their health insurance every year, and another sixty-two million see their health benefits coverage reduced or their premiums increased.

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[ 18 June 2004: Message edited by: robbie_dee ]

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In one of the largest public demonstrations ever held on the Golden Gate Bridge, nearly 10,000 SEIU members and allies turned the world-famous structure into a virtual stream of SEIU purple yesterday morning as they made a dramatic walk across the bridge calling for quality, affordable health care for all.

The “Bridge the Gap for Health Care” walk was the anchor event in SEIU-sponsored marches, rallies, and events in more than 150 cities in every state across the country, from California to Maine.

As in San Francisco, “Bridge the Gap” participants in city after city said the goal was to send a message to elected officials that every man, woman, and child should have access to decent, affordable health care.

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