During the last Democratic Presidential debate, a number of candidates attacked Bernie Sanders’ Medicare for All legislation by saying that unionized workers would lose their negotiated health care.
As someone who continues to have negotiated health care into my retirement, I want to call this out as simply not true.
First of all, under Sanders’ plan, all of us would be covered under an improved Medicare system.
Second, for anyone who has been involved in union negotiations, we know how health insurance has become one of the most expensive and difficult benefits to negotiate for. Most union workers had fully employer paid health insurance in the 70s and 80s, but most of us are now paying toward our insurance and for many of us, our insurance covers less and less actual health care.
Third, if we could remove health insurance from bargaining it would allow us to negotiate for other benefits, such as wage increases.
Finally, I think we are often confused by language. Many of us have health insurance. This does not mean that we have health care. We often must fight to receive coverage for certain procedures. This is because, as Sanders says, insurance is not a good way for people to get the health care they need.
I hope as we move forward in this election, all of us take the time to understand that we all need health care at some point and how wonderful it could be if we could actually get it without fighting an insurance company for it.
Jan Schaffer
Warner