This holiday season, many of you will discuss health care with loved ones. That’s because health care is a family issue. Families struggle together, we care for one another when we’re sick, and we face down financial hardship as one. After a near-catastrophic economic downturn, Americans everywhere face tough choices on where to spend their …
As newly elected secretary-treasurer of the AFL-CIO, I traveled the country this fall, talking with workers and hearing their concerns. The economic crisis is causing a lot of pain. So many people have no jobs, no health care–and many are losing their homes. And as I looked into the faces of young workers, the reality …
Aetna announced that it will deliberately cut 600,000 people from its insurance rolls to raise its profits next year: In a third-quarter earnings conference call in late October, officials at Aetna announced that in an effort to improve on a less-than-anticipated profit margin in 2009, they would be raising prices on their consumers in 2010. …
Last night, the Senate unveiled their health care bill. You can read the full bill here [pdf], or the summery documents here. On the whole, the Senate bill looks very much like the House health care bill. It ends insurance company abuses like denying care for those with pre-existing conditions and it sets benefit standards …
The Senate Has a Health Care Bill. What’s in It? Read More »
Hyatt’s efforts to woo fired housekeepers has been mostly unsuccessful, with only six taking up the hotelier’s offer of employment with the company that replaced them. Hyatt says the new jobs will extend their pay through 2010 and healthcare through May 2010. But workers aren’t buying the company’s efforts to assuage the public relations disaster …
Hyatt Continues Catching Flack over Fired Boston Workers Read More »
Union leaders joined President Obama in hailing the historic, if narrow, passage of major health reform legislation in the House this weekend. The bill “is a fiscally responsible bill that will cover 96 percent of Americans, end insurance company discrimination and denials of care and equip health care providers with the tools they need to …
Big Unions Hail Healthcare Bill Passage, as Senate Challenge Begins Read More »
Over the next few days, I’ll be taking a closer look at the provisions on the House health care bill – H.R. 3962, the Affordable Health Care for America Act. As was the case when the original tri-committee bill was released, the House committees have a ton of fact sheets on the bill that are …
A Closer Look at the House Bill: Taking on the Insurance Industry Read More »
“Today, we are about to deliver on the promise of making affordable, quality health care available for all americans,” said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in her statement, announcing the House health care bill. The bill is based on the ideas of opportunity, choice and innovation. Check out her speech live here. You can read the …
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) announced in a Capitol Hill press conference today that he will send a health care reform bill to the Senate floor that includes a public option. States will have until 2014 to decide if they want to participate in the public plan. Reid said he was optimistic that health …
When Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) suggested she would block health care reform if it included a public option, Maine workers took action: The Maine AFL-CIO put its convention on hold so attendees could call her and tell her that a public option is essential to make reform work. (Recent polls in Maine suggest Mainers strongly …
Maine Union Members Tell Snowe to Support a Public Option, and More Health Care News Read More »
Madeline Messa is a 3L at Syracuse University College of Law. She graduated from Penn State with a degree in journalism. With her legal research and writing for Workplace Fairness, she strives to equip people with the information they need to be their own best advocate.
