Unions Support Medicare For All

Table of Contents:

  1. Summary
  2. Bottom Line
  3. Update
  4. Fact Sheet
  5. Take Action

Summary:

Matthew Yglesias, a co-founder, editor, and columnist for Vox, tweeted on Monday, April 15, 2019: “The fact that major labor unions aren’t on board with Medicare for All is yet another pretty good sign that this isn’t going to happen.” Yglesias was citing an article from AP News by Michelle L. Price and Nicholas Riccaradi, which argues that Democrats should start focusing more on day-to-day issues that affect workers, like earning enough money to pay their bills.

In Price and Riccaradi’s article, the only statement about Medicare-for-All came from the executive secretary of Nevada AFL-CIO, Rusty McAllister: “[Medicare-for-All is] not something that I think that labor is as much focused on as some of the progressives are.” Yglesias took this statement and stretched it into an inaccurate and unsubstantiated claim, asserting that unions oppose the measure.

The fact is that the majority of all union workers in this country are represented by unions that have endorsed Medicare-for-All.

Given that these facts were not difficult to find, this leads us to believe that Yglesias is being disingenuous and so we mark this as propaganda. As a reporter and editor, he knows how to find this information, and he knows how easily a statement by someone of his influence can quickly affect his audience and other influencers. This is irresponsible and negligent.

For more about this story, you can read the full article here.

Bottom Line:

The majority of union workers in this country are represented by unions that have publicly endorsed Medicare-for-All, including major labor unions.

Goal:

  • Matthew Yglesias issue a statement of correction
  • Media to share these facts
  • To never see this inaccurate claim made again

Update:

Matthew Yglesias has responded by blocking TYT Army and Alison Hartson on Twitter.

THE FACTS

THE FACTS–

#1: The majority of union workers in this country are represented by unions that have publicly endorsed Medicare-for-All, including major labor unions.

  • 637 union organizations and 22 international/national unions have publicly stated their support for Medicare-for-All, including:
  • Examples of public statements from unions:
    • “The American healthcare system allows the profit motives of providers,  pharmaceutical companies, and other moneyed interests to leave us with unequal treatment access and poorer health outcomes at higher costs for consumers. SEIU will support, defend and promote the Affordable Care Act and will work to improve it as a crucial step toward our ultimate goal of building a publicly-financed single-payer system that will recognize healthcare as a human right.” –The Service Employees International Unio (SEIU)
    • “What [Medicare-for-All] is really going to do is destabilize the insurance industry’s profits. It’s not going to destabilize healthcare at all. In fact, it’s going to make it better and more accessible for every single American in the United States.” –Deborah Burger, President of National Nurses United (NNU)
    • “When we go to the bargaining table, guess what management always wants…and it’s not just our union, it’s all unions, they want our health benefits (if we can even keep them) to be less and less; and more and more coming out of the wages and benefits of the worker. So we would all benefit, all of us, from a system of single-payer and Medicare for All.” –Mark Dimondstein, President of the American Postal Workers Union (APWU)
    • “Americans are paying for healthcare insurance but they don’t actually have access to real healthcare. They have copays and deductibles and premiums that prevent them from actually using the healthcare insurance that they’re paying for. [Medicare-for-All] will actually address those issues.” –Deborah Burger, President of National Nurses United (NNU)
    • “Each time we go to the bargaining table, it’s a battle over the rising cost of healthcare. ATU is convinced that Medicare for All is the solution to our healthcare crisis.” –Yvonne Williams, Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU)
    • “We know we must take this on now. Health care costs have become an issue in every collective bargaining agreement for two decades – and an issue in the recent teachers’ strikes.” –Randi Weingarten, President of American Federation of Teachers (AFT)
    • “It’s well past time that we join the more than 30 countries guaranteeing universal access to affordable, high-quality healthcare. Sen. Bernie Sanders’ Medicare for All bill offers a path to achieve this goal. We are solidly behind it.” –Randi Weingarten, President of American Federation of Teachers (AFT)
    • “Our healthcare system is broken. In the United States we pay more for our health care than any other country, and yet millions of people are uninsured or under-insured and can’t get the lifesaving care they need. The Medicare for All Act of 2019 – H.R. 1384 in the House and S. 1804 in the Senate – would change all of that. It would expand our current Medicare system to provide high-quality, comprehensive health care to everyone!” –National Nurses United (NNU)
    • “The IAM recently joined House sponsors of the Medicare for All Act of 2019 at a Capitol Hill press conference. This legislation, sponsored by U.S. Reps. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA), Debbie Dingell (D-MI) and more than 100 other members of Congress, will provide every American with comprehensive health care.” –The International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers
    • “It works so well (current Medicare system) that 70 percent of Americans believe Medicare should continue as it is today with the government guaranteeing seniors health benefits and making sure that everyone gets the same defined set of benefits.’ A majority of Americans also told pollsters over and over that they support the program and prefer a federally funded health  care system or Medicare for All to cover all Americans.” –The American Federation of Government Employee (AFGE)
    • “What we are sick of, is a system based on profit. A criminal system, based on profit, that leave the people of this country and humanity hanging without the kind of healthcare that we all deserve. And sisters and brothers, the people that I represent for the most part do have health insurance right now. But everyday it’s going up. Everyday we have to pay more. Everyday the benefits go down. Everyday we’re in a fight with the insurance companies. And for those who don’t know, the price of future health insurance is being used to choke the public postal service.” –Mark Dimondstein, President of the American Postal Workers Union (APWU)
    • “Health care has become the biggest cause of strikes, lockouts and concession bargaining. Health care costs drive wage stagnation as unions routinely trade off wage increases and other benefits in order to maintain basic health care for their members and retirees. Unscrupulous non-union employers gain an unfair competitive advantage over worker-friendly businesses by shortchanging their own employees’ health care benefits. Unions do not serve their members well by trying to circle the wagons around an unsustainable model of employment-based health care.” –Larry Brown, President of the Washington chapter AFL-CIO
    • “We’re at the bedside, we’re at the front line where we see patients harmed because they don’t have access to insurance and healthcare; they often are having to make immoral choices on whether they pay the rent or get their chemotherapy and we believe that healthcare is a human right.” –Deborah Burger, President of National Nurses Unite (NNU)
    • United Electrical Workers has the following graphic on their website:
    • “Sanders’ Medicare for All bill is exactly what UE members have demanded for decades: a universal, single-payer healthcare system which guarantees coverage for all people.” –Gene Elk, Director of United Electrical, Radio & Machine Workers of America
    • “We are ready to mobilize our members and communities to take on the health insurance industry, Wall Street, and the politicians who represent them, and to win healthcare as a right.” –Gene Elk, Director of United Electrical, Radio & Machine Workers of America
    • “Today the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers formally announced its backing of the Medicare for All Act of 2017, a bill sponsored by Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders to ensure that every American has health care coverage.” –The International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers
    • “Let me tell you what you need in this country – you need national, single-payer, Medicare for All. It’s not the size of the dog in the fight, but the size of the fight in the dog.” –Cecil Roberts, President of United Mine Workers of America (UMWA)
    • “Health care is a right, not a privilege; and Americans should not be squeezed beneath the thumb of multi-billion-dollar insurance companies who profit by withholding medical care.” –The International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers

TAKE ACTION

SUGGESTED HASHTAGS:

#TYTArmy
#Propaganda
#MediaBias
#Misinformation
#TruthMatter
#Progressives
#Unions
#M4A
#MedicareForAll
#SinglePayer
#PeopleOverProfit
#Medicare4All
#PeopleOverPolitics
#EstablishmentBias
#PolicyOverPolitics

WHO TO CONTACT–

REQUEST AN OFFICIAL CORRECTION:

Matthew Yglesias
Co-founder, editor, author at VOX
Twitter: @mattyglesias
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mattyglesias/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mattyglesias/
Email: matt@vox.com

Ezra Klein
Co-founder at Vox
Twitter: @ezraklein
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ezraklein/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ezraklein/?hl=en

Melissa Bell
Co-founder at Vox
Twitter: @MelissaBell
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/melissabell

VOX
Twitter:@voxdotcom
Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/Vox
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/voxdotcom/?hl=en

THANK UNIONS FOR SUPPORTING MEDICARE-FOR-ALL:

THANK FOR SPONSORING MEDICARE-FOR-ALL:

Sen. Bernie Sanders
Sponsor of Medicare for All S. 1129
Twitter: @SenSanders
Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/senatorsanders/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/berniesanders/

Rep. Pramila Jayapal
Sponsor of Medicare for All H. 1384
Twitter: @RepJayapal
Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/RepJay
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/repjayapal/

DEMAND A VOTE FOR MEDICARE-FOR-ALL:

Speaker Nancy Pelosi
Twitter: @SpeakerPelosi
Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/NancyPelosi/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/speakerpelosi/
Email: https://www.speaker.gov/contact/

Sen. Chuck Schumer
Twitter: @SenSchumer
Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/senschumer/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/chuckschumer/
Email: www.schumer.senate.gov/contact/email-chuck

Sen. Mitch McConnell
Twitter: @senatemajldr
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mitchmcconnell/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mcconnellpress/
Email: https://www.mcconnell.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/contactform


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