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AFL-CIO 2008

Presidential Candidate

Questionnaire

As you are aware, Union Privilege is launching a scholarship program to help more women and people of color become union leaders.

The scholarships, worth up to $3,000 each, can be used for tuition, books and travel for leadership training at accredited labor schools, colleges, universities and community colleges.

Please encourage your chapter members to visit www.UnionPlus.org/DiversityScholarship  to learn more about the program and download an application. 

ALL APPLICATIONS MUST BE POSTMARKED BY September 29, 2007. 

Scholarship winners will be contacted by December 1, 2007.

The National Journal gives a preview of what redistricting will likely produce, given the Census Bureau's latest population estimates and the people who will probably control the re-mapping process in each state.

The 2012 Seating Plan

          IN THIS ISSUE

1. Health Care and 2008: Country Ready for 'Universal Health Care' Debate Again 
   By Democracy Corps
   
2. World's Best Medical Care?
   By New York Times Editorial
   
3. Health Care System Slammed Poll: 69 percent of voters displeased with current setup.
   By Peter Hecht
   

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FULL TEXT

1) Health Care and 2008 : Country Ready for 'Universal Health Care' Debate Again
    By Democracy Corps
    Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research

Democracy Corps and Greenberg Quinlan Rosner have completed a comprehensive study of the most important domestic issue of the cycle, health care. The survey was conducted May 29-31, 2007, among 1,000 likely voters and finds Americans deeply frustrated with the current health care system, ready to move beyond narrow debates over issues like the cost of prescription drugs and waiting for big, bold reform. The new research shows that, above almost anything else, Americans want security in their health care delivery, health care that can never be taken away from them. As such a guarantee is impossible absent a universal system, it shows universal health care, both as policy goal and normative value, as a powerful political asset.

Download the Memo : http://www.democracycorps.com/reports/analyses/Democracy_Corps_July_23_2007_Health_Care_Memo.pdf

Download the Survey : http://www.democracycorps.com/reports/surveys/Democracy_Corps_May_29-31_2007_Health_Care_Survey.pdf

In their latest strategy memo, Stan Greenberg, James Carville, and Anna Greenberg argue that Democrats should drive the health care debate and make Republicans' timid overtures on this issue irrelevant. We hope you find this material helpful in your work. If you have any questions or comments, please contact us at 202-478-8300.

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2) World's Best Medical Care?
     By New York Times Editorial
     Late Edition - Final, Section WK, Page 9, Column , 1294 words
     August 12, 2007

Many Americans are under the delusion that we have "the best health care system in the world," as President Bush sees it, or provide the "best medical care in the world," as Rudolph
Giuliani declared last week. That may be true at many top medical centers. But the disturbing truth is that this country lags well behind other advanced nations in delivering timely and effective care.

Michael Moore struck a nerve in his new documentary, "Sicko," when he extolled the virtues of the government-run health care systems in France, England, Canada and even Cuba while deploring the failures of the largely private insurance system in this country. There is no question that Mr. Moore overstated his case by making foreign systems look almost flawless. But there is a growing body of evidence that, by an array of pertinent yardsticks, the United States is a laggard not a leader in providing good medical care.

Seven years ago, the World Health Organization made the first major effort to rank the health systems of 191 nations. France and Italy took the top two spots; the United States was a dismal 37th. More recently, the highly regarded Commonwealth Fund has pioneered in comparing the United States with other advanced nations through surveys of patients and doctors and analysis of other data. Its latest report, issued in May, ranked the United
States last or next-to-last compared with five other nations - Australia, Canada, Germany, New Zealand and the United Kingdom - on most measures of performance, including quality of care and access to it. Other comparative studies also put the United States in a relatively bad light.

Insurance coverage. All other major industrialized nations provide universal health coverage, and most of them have comprehensive benefit packages with no cost-sharing by the patients. The United States, to its shame, has some 45 million people without health insurance and many more millions who have poor coverage. Although the president has blithely said that
these people can always get treatment in an emergency room, many studies have shown that people without insurance postpone treatment until a minor illness becomes worse, harming their own health and imposing greater costs.

Access. Citizens abroad often face long waits before they can get to see a specialist or undergo elective surgery. Americans typically get prompter attention, although Germany does better. The real barriers here are the costs facing low-income people without insurance or with skimpy coverage. But even Americans with above-average incomes find it more difficult than their counterparts abroad to get care on nights or weekends without going to an  emergency room, and many report having to wait six days or more for an appointment with their own doctors.

Fairness. The United States ranks dead last on almost all measures of equity because we have the greatest disparity in the quality of care given to richer and poorer citizens.  Americans with below-average incomes are much less likely than their counterparts in other industrialized nations to see a doctor when sick, to fill prescriptions or to get needed tests and follow-up care.

Healthy lives. We have known for years that America has a high infant mortality rate, so it is no surprise that we rank last among 23 nations by that yardstick. But the problem is much
broader. We rank near the bottom in healthy life expectancy at age 60, and 15th among 19 countries in deaths from a wide range of illnesses that would not have been fatal if treated with timely and effective care. The good news is that we have done a better job than other industrialized nations in reducing smoking. The bad news is that our obesity epidemic is the worst in the world.

Quality. In a comparison with five other countries, the Commonwealth Fund ranked the United States first in providing the 'right care' for a given condition as defined by standard
clinical guidelines and gave it especially high marks for preventive care, like Pap smears and mammograms to detect early-stage cancers, and blood tests and cholesterol checks for hypertensive patients. But we scored poorly in coordinating the care of chronically ill patients, in protecting the safety of patients, and in meeting their needs and preferences, which
drove our overall quality rating down to last place. American doctors and hospitals kill patients through surgical and medical mistakes more often than their counterparts in other
industrialized nations.

Life and death. In a comparison of five countries, the United States had the best survival rate for breast cancer, second best for cervical cancer and childhood leukemia, worst for kidney
transplants, and almost-worst for liver transplants and colorectal cancer. In an eight-country comparison, the United States ranked last in years of potential life lost to circulatory diseases, respiratory diseases and diabetes and had the second highest death rate from bronchitis, asthma and emphysema. Although several factors can affect these results, it seems likely that the quality of care delivered was a significant contributor.

Patient satisfaction. Despite the declarations of their political leaders, many Americans hold surprisingly negative views of their health care system. Polls in Europe and North America seven to nine years ago found that only 40 percent of Americans were satisfied with the nation?s health care system, placing us 14th out of 17 countries. In recent Commonwealth Fund surveys of five countries, American attitudes stand out as the most negative, with a third of the adults surveyed calling for rebuilding the entire system, compared with only 13 percent who feel that way in Britain and 14 percent in Canada.

That may be because Americans face higher out-of-pocket costs than citizens elsewhere, are less apt to have a long-term doctor, less able to see a doctor on the same day when sick, and less apt to get their questions answered or receive clear instructions from a doctor. On the other hand, Gallup polls in recent years have shown that three-quarters of the  respondents in the United States, in Canada and in Britain rate their personal care as excellent or good, so it could be hard to motivate these people for the wholesale change sought by the disaffected.

Use of information technology. Shockingly, despite our vaunted prowess in computers, software and the Internet, much of our health care system is still operating in the dark ages of paper records and handwritten scrawls. American primary care doctors lag years behind doctors in other advanced nations in adopting electronic medical records or prescribing medications electronically. This makes it harder to coordinate care, spot errors and adhere to standard clinical guidelines.

Top-of-the-line care. Despite our poor showing in many international comparisons, it is doubtful that many Americans, faced with a life-threatening illness, would rather be treated elsewhere. We tend to think that our very best medical centers are the best in the world. But whether this is a realistic assessment or merely a cultural preference for the home team is difficult to say. Only when better measures of clinical excellence are developed will discerning medical shoppers know for sure who is the best of the best.

With health care emerging as a major issue in the presidential campaign and in Congress, it will be important to get beyond empty boasts that this country has ?the best health care system in the world? and turn instead to fixing its very real defects. The main goal should be to reduce the huge number of uninsured, who are a major reason for our poor standing globally. But there is also plenty of room to improve our coordination of care, our use of computerized records, communications between doctors and patients, and dozens of other factors that impair the quality of care. The world's most powerful economy should be able to
provide a health care system that really is the best.

http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F50E16FF3B590C718DDDA10894DF404482

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3) Health care system slammed Poll: 69 percent of voters displeased with current setup.
    By Peter Hecht
    Bee Capitol Bureau
    Wednesday, August 22, 2007, Published 12:00 am PDT

In a dramatic shift in public attitudes, more than two-thirds of California voters now say they are unhappy with the health care system and increasing numbers favor a government-run system covering all state residents, a new Field Poll revealed Tuesday.

The survey of 536 registered voters showed that 69 percent are dissatisfied with the health care system in California, with 42 percent saying they are "very dissatisfied" and 28 percent
saying they are content with the current system.

Those numbers -- in a poll taken Aug. 3-12 -- contrast starkly with responses to a similar Field Poll last December. Then, 51 percent of voters said they were satisfied with the way the health care system was functioning, compared with 44 percent who were dissatisfied.

Mark DiCamillo, director of the California Field Poll, said the shift in attitudes seems to reflect reactions to a political drumbeat led by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and state lawmakers insisting the state health care system needs fixing.

Schwarzenegger has advanced a $12 billion plan to cover some 6.5 million uninsured Californians. His proposal would expand the state's health insurance program for the poor -- Medi-Cal -- and require employers that don't provide coverage to pay 4 percent of payroll costs to help subsidize residents who can't afford insurance.

But the Republican governor has strenuously rejected a single-payer health care bill, Senate Bill 840 by Sen. Sheila Kuehl, D-Santa Monica, calling the legislation to abolish private health care insurance "government-run health care."

"At one level, the public is taking his message that the health care system is broken and needs to be fixed," DiCamillo said. "The public pretty much takes him (Schwarzenegger) at his word, and more and more they are dissatisfied with the system.

"But as more people get dissatisfied ... the more likely they are to support a state  government-run health care system."

Some 36 percent of voters in the most recent poll say they now support replacing the current health care system in California with a state government-run system covering all residents.

That's up from 24 percent who supported a government-run system in December 2006.

In the December poll, 52 percent of California voters said they favored a plan to overhaul health care by making changes within the existing framework of health insurance and by sharing responsibility among employers, the state and individuals.

In the latest poll, support for this so-called "shared responsibilities" approach dropped to 33 percent of voters -- 3 percentage points less less than the support for a government-run system.

Meanwhile, the percentage of voters who support relying on free-market competition to improve the health care insurance system dropped from 18 percent last December to 14 percent in the recent poll.

"If anything, the poll says the Legislature should think broadly about health care reform, and the cynicism will only increase if nothing gets done," said Anthony Wright, executive director of Health Access California, a group advocating expanding health care through both government and employer programs.

"Clearly, voters are in the mood for broad change."

If so, they don't have much confidence in the ability of state leaders to come up with a solution.

Some 58 percent of Field Poll respondents said they doubt the Legislature and the governor will be successful in passing significant health care reform this year. Thirty-six percent said they expect state government will enact some meaningful legislation.

"I think the results tell us that we need to have affordable coverage for all Californians and there's a strong sense of urgency for doing that," said Chris Ohman, CEO of the California
Association of Health Plans, which represents 39 private and public health plans covering 21 million state residents.

Ohman said the voter attitudes -- and Tuesday's passage of the state budget -- could force the Legislature to undertake a "serious discussion" of health coverage.

Besides Schwarzenegger's health care plan and Kuehl's single-payer proposal, Assembly Speaker Fabian Nħez and Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata are backing a plan to impose a higher threshold on employers. Assembly Bill 8 would require them to spend 7.5 percent of payroll toward employee health coverage or pay the money into a government health insurance pool.

"There is really no consensus within the voting public in how to best reform the system," DiCamillo said.

But he said rising support for a government-run program may have been influenced by Michael Moore's recent documentary, "Sicko." The movie assails private, for-profit health care.

"When you calculate the numbers from the box office, the movie wasn't all that huge," DiCamillo said. "But the publicity it generated certainly raised the level of anxiety about the
(health care) system."

The (health care) system." The percentage of state voters saying they were "very dissatisfied" with health care jumped from December, soaring from 27 percent to 50 percent among Democrats, from 11 percent to 34 percent among Republicans, and from 20 percent to 37 percent among nonpartisans.

But while 47 percent of Democrats and 39 percent of independents favor a government-run system, only 19 percent of Republicans agree.

"There is no question that people are frustrated with the high cost of health care and are concerned about getting and keeping insurance," said Vince Sollitto, spokesman for the California Chamber of Commerce. "But turning over health care to the same government bureaucracy that brought us the Department of Motor Vehicles ... is not the answer, and Californians know that."

http://www.sacbee.com/111/story/338044.html