The National Writers Union, UAW Local 1981, endorses HR 676, the single payer healthcare legislation introduced by Congressman John Conyers (D-MI).
Healthcare should be a right, not a privilege. US today, unions are being forced into confrontations with employers over the payment of insurance premiums. Hospitals are going bankrupt as charity cases increase. Meanwhile, the insurance companies haul in super-profits.
The healthcare crisis has left patients suffering from terminal illness in financial ruin and despair.The nation’s inability to provide quality health care for preventive check-ups has increased the costs of health maintenance, forcing citizens with otherwise curable conditions to wait until they reach a point of no return to good health. Children’s activities have been altered by their parents fear of medical costs that cannot be paid, forcing children into a life of inactivity and obesity that ruins their health.
The healthcare crisis has affected the “pursuit of happiness,” an American tradition since the signing of the Declaration of Independence and thus, in this way, has taken away even more freedom than the pursuit of profits has granted.>This is why the National Writers Union, with over 1,500 members, endorses HR 676 as a way to provide healthcare to all, not profits to few.