By John J. Sweeney
Have you read the of hardworking men and women trapped in America's broken health care system? They're pouring in from around the country—some days faster than we can read them—and they are more than a wake-up call. They are an alarm bell.
Every member of Congress hashing out an economic stimulus package with the White House right now and every candidate for office at every level should be reading them.
They should read about the people who worked hard all their lives and have lost everything—everything—to health care costs. Who watched loved ones slip toward death while awaiting insurance company approval for life-saving treatment. The young adults, trying to build lives of their own, unable to get a start because both insurance and health care are unaffordable. The people—yes, not the person—who had to pull out their own rotted, aching teeth because they couldn't afford dental coverage. People whose family members are risking their lives because they can't afford ongoing treatment for diabetes or high blood pressure.
It's a crying shame.
What has happened to America? I'll tell you: Over the past three decades, corporations—together with their political allies and free market fundamentalists—have sold out the American Dream for a Corporate Agenda. That agenda is built on policies that have destroyed good jobs, stolen bargaining power from workers and enabled unfettered corporate greed.
Productivity and wages used to travel hand in hand—when workers were more productive, wages grew. But that relationship has become unhinged. Average wages today are only 15 percent higher than in 1980, despite a 67 percent increase in productivity. In the past year alone, real wages have dropped by 1 percent. Corporate profits and windfalls for the wealthy are consuming what should be improvements in workers' pay and benefits. Instead of an economy that works for all, ours delivers prosperity to the few.
Fortunately, in this election year, we have the power to take back our health care system and the larger economy for working families. As you are talking with friends and family, co-workers and neighbors about why they should vote, urge them to read these health care stories and to add their own voices by completing the AFL-CIO and Working America's 2008 Health Care for America Survey at . We are going to share these stories and the survey results with every candidate running for office across this country. And the more people who take part, the stronger our voice.
Meanwhile, take a moment of recollection with Ron, an AFSCME member in Saltsburg Pa.
I remember when,
I went to a doctor that I picked, I knew I was getting the best treatment available, not the best that my insurance covered,
Insurance was insurance and the doctor accepted it as "payment in full" and I didn't get bills in the mail in addition to my insurance coverage,
People didn't go to Canada to buy their prescriptions,
There was no such thing as a "generic drug," my family deserves the best,
Seniors could retire at a normal age, not have to continue working in order to afford health coverage,
When you picked a job based on desire, not how good the medical coverage was,
When you didn't have to wonder if you would lose everything you worked for if you suffered a major health related issue, especially as a retiree.
Ron, I promise you, if the working people of America put our minds, our hearts and our votes to it, we can make America's future even better than the past.
