I Would Trade My Union Insurance For Medicare 4 All, Today; And I Have Some of the Best Insurance

[appalachiablue]

I Have 'Some of the Best' Health Insurance a Union Member Can Get, But I Would Trade It Today for Medicare for All. Earlier this month, I witnessed a paid Culinary 226 Union organizer heckle Bernie Sanders and I haven't stopped wondering why. Common Dreams, Dec. 13, 2019. Excerpts:

I believe one job should be enough. I believe labor unions are the backbone of high productivity and a great quality of life. I’m a dues paying member of Culinary 226 in Las Vegas, NV. I’m on the contract committee and I’m a shop steward. All volunteer positions. I’m a waitress, a single parent and progressive activist: workers’ rights mean everything to me.

After 16 years with this union, I am proud of what was accomplished before my time and hopeful about how we can continue to build on that. With a whopping 60,000 members, “this union that does politics” has been a community staple since its inception in 1935. I attend every picket and rally I can even if I have to drag along my 7-year-old daughter.

I’m a union girl through and through. When implemented correctly, unions are the biggest difference between justice and injustice on the job. I know for a fact that without the protection of my union contract, I would have been wrongfully terminated years ago for refusing to sacrifice my dignity along with my labor and time. After the Janus Supreme Court decision in 2018, I never even considered retracting dues or surrendering membership. I believed that since I was always there for my union, they would be always there for me.

"I would trade my union insurance for Medicare For All today."

Earlier this month, I attended a Bernie Sanders town hall held by the Culinary Union 226 in Las Vegas and I witnessed a paid organizer rallying a small group to heckle Senator Bernie Sanders. This was right after a staged question about how Senator Sanders would accommodate the union to keep our insurance during and after the implementation of Medicare For All. Positing that all the members want to keep their union insurance instead of Medicare For All.



-- Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) speaks while introducing the Medicare for All Act of 2019 with Sens. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), and Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) during a news conference on Capitol Hill, on April 9, 2019 in Washington, D.C.

For me, that couldn’t be further from the truth. I need to speak from my own perspective since I have been erased from the conversation. Despite the uncanny familiarity of "The Irishman" film, the promise of being shunned or worse by a huge portion of the 60,000 and the fact that I’m one of the few active people who work at my particular restaurant, I still won’t cower in fear from fascism in any form: foreign or domestic. I would trade my union insurance for Medicare For All today.

Culinary 226 has a reputation for having some of the best health insurance in the city and, relatively speaking, it is. Especially if you’re an employee who rarely gets sick or doesn’t have a chronic illness. I’m going to dispel some common myths and outline some reasons I would opt out of Culinary Health Fund in exchange for Medicare For All: out of pocket costs, quality of care, access to care freedom of choice and the perils of elitism.

I live with chronic illness and I’ve been somewhat successfully bootstrapping my way through symptoms for years. In 2019, I began to have bad flare ups. Because of the limitations of my insurance, I have not been given the recommended treatments and I have missed an exorbitant amount of work and had a pretty shitty quality of life since then. I’ve been dealing with chronic bilateral uveitis and the associated systemic fatigue and pain since January 2019. It’s now December and I have yet to receive the systemic steroids, biologics, and immunosuppressants I need. I have Advil and eyedrops. I have encountered a maze of bureaucracy, delayed diagnosis and failure to treat..

If I had Medicare For All, I would probably be able to afford Christmas gifts for my kids this year instead of being the gift. If I had Medicare For All, I wouldn’t have to travel to seek medical treatment or start a GoFundMe to expedite my treatment to avoid losing my job because I can’t hold onto it much longer in this condition. If I had Medicare For All, I wouldn’t be on the chopping block at my job because they think Im faking it or don’t care either way. If had Medicare For All, bias, delayed diagnosis or refusal of treatment would not be tolerated. We have to acknowledge the reality that for-profit insurance asserts that if you don’t work you deserve what you get: up to and including death. Also, sick people don’t deserve jobs..

Medicare For All is a racial justice issue. Medicare For All is an immigrant rights issue. Medicare For All is a disability rights issue Medicare For All is a gender justice issue. Medicare For All is a women’s rights issue. Women are less likely to have their doctors believe their symptoms. Black women have it much worse which shows up in black maternal mortality rates, terminal illness and chronic illnesses....

More, https://www.commondreams.org/views/2019/12/13/i-have-some-best-health-insurance-union-member-can-get-i-would-trade-it-today

~ Author Marcie Wells is a progressive activist, waitress, single parent, and a member of the Culinary Workers Union Local 226 in Nevada. Her opinions are her own.

[Indykatie]

1. I Negotiate Benefits With Unions

Ms. Wells is a progressive activist whose opinion differs from the Union leaders I have talked too. Delivering good healthcare benefits and wages are 2 of the biggest reasons workers need and support Unions. Some Union leaders feel taking healthcare away from their remit would diminish their leverage. I have not seen any announcements from the UAW or AFL-CIO touting support for M4All. Absent that level of support there will be more than a few Dem politicians unwilling to support it.

[safeinOhio]

3. I've been a UAW member for 48 years.

Until I turned 65, I use to get denied by BC/BS all of the time. My doctor order an MIR, they said no until my doctor had me lie about my symptoms so I could get it. Every time I went to the ER, they made me go back to get a note from the ER doctors saying it was a life or death situation and so on and so on.
For the last 5 years I've been on MC, I have never been denied.

[hedda_foil]

2. Medicare for All is a Worker's Rights issue.

Finally, you don't have to negotiate for healthcare and can focus on pay raises and other important issues to improve your quality of life. And you won't have to beg for people on To Fund Me because your insurance company won't pay for the treatment you need.

[Sherman A1]

4. Precisely

Eloquently stated!

[Corgigal]

5. My husband

was able to get Medicare at the age of 30. He was struck by a car, intentionally, and the guy went to prison. Still took about 4 years. This was back when it didn’t cover medications.

We never had good success with it. We now pay a extra 300 a month for a supplemental insurance plan. I really don’t know why everyone thinks it’s the answer to our prayers, it isn’t. Wait till you have to use it. Some bills are great, others are confusing and expensive. We need better then Medicare too. I guess it’s a start, but it’s not the end all.

I have the V.A, and we all should have that. It’s a much better plan.

[area51]

6. The proposed

Medicare for All is improved and expanded, and you wouldn't have to buy a supplement.