Can the problem of rising health care costs be solved at the bargaining table?
No. America’s health care crisis is a national problem that requires a national solution. It cannot be resolved with any one industry or employer through labor negotiations. The United States is the only major industrialized nation in which the responsibility for providing health care rests primarily with employers. Other developed nations have universal health care systems – funded by general and employer tax revenues – that provide high-quality care at lower costs to all their citizens. In the United States, however, more than 46 million Americans are without any health care coverage at all, and millions more are underinsured. The UAW has long advocated for a universal, single-payer insurance program to cover every man, woman and child in the United States. Such a program would not only ensure adequate medical care for all Americans while controlling costs, it would place U.S. companies on a more level playing field with overseas competitors that do not provide health care benefits.
