Editorials

Cause for reflection

Oct 5, 2006 5:34 PM

This issue contains the annual Welfare Fund supplement, which provides members with a host of details about their health coverage, from medical insurance plans to optical, dental and other Welfare Fund benefits. It is also a fitting reminder that at a time when 47 million Americans — 16 percent of the population — have no health insurance at all while millions of others have insufficient insurance, how fortunate UFT members are to work under a union contract that provides that most essential of benefits: good medical care.

The national health care picture is devastating. Costs are rising far faster than either inflation or worker incomes. One survey reported earlier this month by The New York Times found that since 2000 the cost of family coverage has risen 87 percent while consumer prices rose 18 percent and family incomes increased 20 percent.

More and more employers, especially small businesses, are simply dropping health insurance for their workers.

The new Medicare Part D has hurt far more than it has helped, and our Retired Teachers Chapter is energetically engaged in the effort to revise it.

The country does not have a comprehensive approach to providing health care for every single citizen. Without the union movement, the situation would be far worse.

UFTers should reflect on this for a moment.