Labor Campaign for Single-Payer
Press Advisory: 2/4/2010
Yesterday the Labor Campaign for Single Payer joined the growing number of nurses, doctors and other healthcare advocates who have responded to President Obama's State of the Union challenge to "let him know" if there is a better approach that "will bring down premiums, bring down the deficit, cover the uninsured, strengthen Medicare, and stop insurance company abuses."
In a letter sent to the White House (attached & linked at: http://www.laborforsinglepayer.org/2-3-10%20LCS-P%20letter%20to%20President%20Obama.pdf), the 35 labor leaders on the LCSP Steering Committee called the current stalemate on healthcare legislation unacceptable to the American people.
"As grassroots representatives of millions of this country’s union members and in the interest of all working people, we respectfully submit that taking single payer off the table was both a strategic and tactical mistake," the LCS-P leadership stated. None of the proposals currently under consideration "meet the test of equity or justice." Instead, "A Medicare-for-All system would be far more cost effective than any of the proposed current reforms based on continuation of for-profit, market-based insurance. And it is a program that Americans are already familiar with--a solution right at our fingertips."
LCS-P National Conference Set
The Labor Campaign for Single Payer is hosting a National Labor Meeting March 5-7, 2010 at the National Labor College near Washington, DC. The conference will address the future of the fight for healthcare for all, the implementation of the single-payer resolution passed at the recent AFL-CIO convention and the ongoing impact of the healthcare crisis on collective bargaining and the loss of decent union jobs. Register today at www.laborforsinglepayer.org Press credentials available upon request.
Contacts: Mark Dudzic - 201-314-2653 - mdudzic@igc.org
Jerry Tucker – 314-968-5534 - jtuckernd@sbcglobal.net
