Health Care

Health care is a basic human right.  America’s labor movement has worked for more than a century for guaranteed high-quality health care for everyone.  The Affordable Care Act is a historic milestone on this journey, but we still have a long way to go.

America must continue moving forward toward a more equitable and cost-effective health care system. Moving forward means working with employers to demand health care payment and delivery reforms to control costs, allowing people of all ages to buy into the equivalent of Medicare through a public plan option and allowing Medicare to negotiate lower drug prices.  Of course, the most cost-effective and equitable way to provide quality health care is through the social insurance model (“Medicare for All”), as other industrialized countries have shown. 

The worst thing we could do is move backward by repealing the Affordable Care Act or its key provisions; privatizing Medicare or turning it into a voucher program; raising the Medicare eligibility age; increasing Medicare co-pays and deductibles or otherwise cutting Medicare benefits; or taxing employment-based health care benefits. 

More about this issue:

Feb 12, 2021 | News Story

Mass incarceration of Black and brown communities has led to an ever growing labor pool of vulnerable, disadvantaged and discriminated-against workers.

Feb 12, 2021 | News Story

On the heels of the New York State Attorney General’s report that revealed that nursing homes with fewer staff had more COVID deaths, 1199SEIU, the largest healthcare union in the country, this week launched a multi-million-dollar advertising campaign to reform the nursing home industry.

Feb 12, 2021 | News Story

New York City’s hometown paper has formed a union.

Feb 12, 2021 | News Story

The creative staff at Onion Inc., the popular digital company behind The Onion, The A.V.

Feb 5, 2021 | News Story

New York City restaurant workers, taxi drivers, and residents in developmentally disabled facilities are now eligible to get the COVID-19 vaccine.

Feb 5, 2021 | News Story

The Biden administration has tapped New York's Amanda Lefton to serve as the new Director of the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM).

Jan 29, 2021 | News Story

After a one-week strike, 1,400 Hunts Point Produce Market workers are back on the job with historic raises. Teamsters Local 202 members approved their new union contract on Saturday.

Jan 29, 2021 | News Story

Joining its sibling union IATSE, Actors' Equity Association announced its commitment to providing resources from a shuttered theatre industry towards vaccinating the population— including union members.

Jan 27, 2021 | Press Release

Testimony of the New York City Central Labor Council, AFL-CIO, before the New York City Council Committee on Civil Service & Labor

Wednesday, January 27, 2021