AFSCME Fights For Public Option, Employer Mandate

[Omaha Steve]

I am one of 1.6 million AFSCME members.

http://undertheinfluence.nationaljournal.com/2009/09/afscme-fighting-for-public-opt.php

By Beth Sussman

American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees
This union speaks for 1.6 million local and state government employees including nurses, corrections offers and sanitation workers.

What They Want
AFSCME's priorities for health care reform are also some of the most fragile parts of proposed legislation: a public option, an employer mandate and federal funding for an expansion of Medicaid.

The public option "is a critical way to make the insurance companies honest and to help bring costs down," said Chuck Loveless, AFSCME's legislative director.

Congressional leadership and President Obama have come under pressure from some Republicans, moderate Democrats and interest groups to forgo a public option in favor of a co-op system or similar alternative. But Loveless said the public option and the employer mandate are necessary to achieve near universal coverage.

The union wants to see an expansion of Medicaid, but it worries that the cost will be pushed onto state governments. To avoid this problem, AFSCME wants reform legislation to provide for federal funding of a Medicaid expansion.

The states are under "severe fiscal distress at the moment," Loveless said. "This can not be laid on the backs of the states."

FULL story at link.