The Executive Board of 1199SEIU United Healthcare Workers East has unanimously endorsed HR 676, a bill to legislate a single payer health care system in the U.S. The union represents 275,000 members in Maryland, Washington DC, New York and Massachusetts.
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was an early supporter of 1199’s effort to organize low wage, largely African American and Hispanic hospital workers. He often referred to Local 1199 as his “favorite” union. In later years, both he and his wife, Coretta Scott King, supported 1199’s efforts in Baltimore, MD and Charleston, SC.
HR 676 now has 68 congressional co-sponsors in addition to John Conyers Jr. (D-MI). It would institute a single payer health care system in the U.S. by expanding a greatly improved Medicare system to every resident.
HR 676 would cover every person in the U. S. for all necessary medical care including prescription drugs, hospital, surgical, outpatient services, primary and preventive care, emergency services, dental, mental health, home health, physical therapy, rehabilitation (including for substance abuse), vision care, chiropractic and long term care. HR 676 ends deductibles and co-payments. HR 676 would save billions annually by eliminating high overhead and profits of the private health insurance industry and HMOs.