Obamacare not enough, so some in labor want single-payer system

[OhioChick]

September 12, 2014 at 12:29 PM

CLEVELAND, Ohio - When many in the labor movement speak about health care reform they are not talking about Obamacare, but a single-payer system.

"It has been a historic goal of the labor movement to establish a Medicare for all, single-payer system in the U.S., just like almost every industrialized country in the world," said Mark Dudzic, national coordinator for the Labor Campaign for Single Payer. "The labor movement, we believe, has to be in the forefront of the fight, if we are going to win that."

Dudzic is one of the speakers in a forum tomorrow (Sept. 13) being sponsored by his Washington, D.C.-based group and the Single Payer Action Network of Ohio, or SPAN, which is lobbying for instituting such a health care system in Ohio. The event is scheduled for 2 to 4 p.m. at the North Shore AFL-CIO Federation of Labor, 3250 Euclid Ave., in Cleveland.

Those supporting single payer emphasize that they are not seeking a publicly funded system run by the government, in which health care workers would be public employees. Instead, they want one more like Medicare, in which users would go to private doctors, using public money to pay the bills. Supporters say one of the reasons such a system would cost less to operate is that administrative costs associated with a private insurance system would be gone.

More: http://www.cleveland.com/business/index.ssf/2014/09/obamacare_not_enough_so_some_i.html#incart_more_business