• Listen to this segment

GUEST: Kay Tillow, Spokesperson of All Unions Committee For Single Payer Health Care-HR 676

The AFL-CIO of Maine recently joined 270 union organizations across 43 states in endorsing Congressman John Conyers’ Universal Health Care plan, HR 676. The endorsement resolution passed unanimously as Maine became the 18th state AFL-CIO organization to support the bill. HR 676 would implement a single-payer health care system in the U.S. and would cover necessary medical care universally. Currently 45 million Americans, or about 15 percent of the population, have no health insurance at all. Furthermore, a study released last month by the Commonwealth Fund showed that the health care system in the United States ranked last among industrialized wealthy nations despite being the costliest. The US was most unlike other nations studied, insofar as it failed to guarantee universal health care to its citizens. Health care is sure to be a major domestic issue in the upcoming 2008 elections. The health care system in the United States will also be the subject of Michael Moore’s upcoming documentary, “Sicko.”

For more information, visit www.pnhp.org, or email nursenpo@aol.com.