Culinary Union suggests Sanders, Warren asking union members to trade health plans for 'promises'

[TexasTowelie]

The politically powerful Culinary Union hasn’t yet endorsed in the Democratic presidential primary, but it is making clear which candidates it won’t be supporting.

A one-pager from the union, the kind of document usually distributed in employee dining rooms and break areas, obtained by The Nevada Independent obliquely accuses Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren of wanting to take away union members’ hard-fought and much beloved health plans and warns that electing either candidate will lead to four more years of a Donald Trump presidency.

The union, which provides health insurance to 130,000 workers and their family members through a special trust fund, strongly opposes the Medicare-for-all plans the two candidates support, which would eliminate the union’s health plan by design.

However, until now, union leaders have directed their ire more generally at the policy than the candidates who back it.

Read more: https://thenevadaindependent.com/article/culinary-union-suggests-sanders-warren-asking-union-members-to-trade-health-plans-for-promises

[denem]

1. Sanders and Warren are not on the same page anymore.

[brush]

2. I'm in NV and neither will win here going against the union health plan.

[squirecam]

7. I agree

Cant wait to vote !

[UniteFightBack]

3. Even though M4A is the right way to go it is a general election LOSER!! nt

[mjvpi]

4. Why is it always assumed that universal health care will be worse than what we have now?

I’m speaking in general terms, I know. The latest figures that I can find say that in the US we spend 19.8% of GDP on health care. That’s about 3.5 trillion dollars a year. We are already spending a lion’s share of what universal care has been estimated to cost.

It seems that unions could use their power even more effectively helping to shape a government system than negotiating with profit focused companies.

[squirecam]

6. The union has bargained for certainty

They have great care and why would their members Vote for uncertainty?

This is why a public option is the only way forward.

[brush]

8. Excellent points.

[Cha]

17. I can't blame them a bit.

[Ron Green]

19. What a public option will do is continue to sort people into groups

based on health and wealth. Only a single risk pool will create a system that effectively controls costs and strengthens public health; otherwise, it’s the same “us vs them” shell game of plans, networks and formularies, with investors skimming off the top.

[squirecam]

21. What M4A will do

Is cost Democrats an election. And you get nothing, or worse, Trump gets rid of pre-existing conditions.

You want NV union members, who have spent decades bargains for and obtaining their rights, giving them up for a plan that the candidate doesn’t know how much it costs?

It’s absurd.

[Happy Hoosier]

13. We're bwing asked to buy a pig in a poke.

I, for one, am not buying it. I wanna see the plan and I want to see it working before I chuck what I have. That’s why I want a public option first.

[HarlanPepper]

5. This will be similar framing the GOP will use in the fall.

Only they will include Bernie’s plan to raise taxes on the middle class along with it. So forcing people to give up their plans and oh yeah you’re taxes are going up too seems like kind of a loser politically.

[brush]

9. Agreed.

[betsuni]

10. K&R

[Kentonio]

11. So tired of hearing about people's supposedly 'beloved healthcare plans'

It’s fucking bullshit quite frankly. It’s like having a ‘beloved’ punch in the face, because the other options are all more violent and painful.

Tell someone from the U.K. how much you love filling out paperwork every time you get sick, how much you love paying deductibles and all the other shit that they never, ever have to deal with.

American healthcare is utterly broken, and it needs to come into the 21st century. People not understanding how badly they’re being treated is no reason not to treat them better.

[BlueIdaho]

12. Have you been to the UK?

Have you talked to anyone there that’s trying to route their way to service through the NHS? Anyone who’s waiting for a bed? Granted, it’s better that our mess, but it is a long way from perfect and even further away from paperless access.

FWIW - there are better health care systems in Europe to use as a model.

[Kentonio]

14. I lived there for many years and it beats the hell out of the US medically

I have no idea what you mean about being far away from paperless access incidentally, once you’re registered at a doctors or hospital there is no paperwork involved on the patient side. You turn up, they find you on their computer system and then they just treat you, no matter how severe the illness or accident. No bullshit about checking what some insurance covers, they just go straight to treatment and then afterwards you just go home and that’s it. No letters later breaking down the cost of your treatment, no demands for money, none of it.

[BlueIdaho]

15. How long ago was that?

My UK friends and relatives currently don’t find it to be the nirvana you describe. They complain about dirty and decrepit facilities, extended wait times for beds in hospitals, logjams for testing, and staffing shortages of both doctors and nurses. Many of them pay for additional coverage to shortcut wait times and get what they perceive as better quality care. This is especially true now that Tories are gutting the system.

BTW - before I entered Medicare, I was on a negotiated health plan at the college where I taught. Other than minor deductibles, my care was the envy of our community - no horror stories, no paperwork, no surprises. Added to that, my cost was peanuts because it was a negotiated benefit. The same is true for other groups - especially unions where members have the collective power to negotiate quality care at minimal cost. So not all service is a shambles. Now I doubt anyone in the UK would trade their system for ours - but every healthcare system has its failings.

Be Well.

[squirecam]

22. This is nonsense

The union members know EXACTLY what their medical plan is. And they want to keep it.

Please come to NV and tell them they are ignorant about it.

[Kentonio]

24. If they think their plan is better than free at the point of use healthcare

With no paperwork, no deductibles, no conditions or exceptions and all the rest, then yes they are ignorant of what much of the rest of the first world countries are enjoying already.

[Gothmog]

28. Bernie Supporters are calling one for the biggest and vastly diverse unions in the country "scabs"

Link to tweet

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

16. Flyer by the Culinary workers

Link to tweet

?s=20

[Cha]

18. Excellent!

[Ron Green]

23. "OUR UNION BELIEVES EVERYONE HAS THE RIGHT TO GOOD HEALTHCARE."

Hmm... does that mean everyone? Or just everyone in our Union?

[Gothmog]

20. Comments from John Ralston

Link to tweet

[Gothmog]

25. Union support is critical in Nevada

Link to tweet

?s=20

[Gothmog]

26. The unions support the Biden plan

Last edited Mon Feb 10, 2020, 07:25 PM - Edit history (1)

Link to tweet

[Gothmog]

27. Nevada union warns members of Sanders, Warren health plans

Link to tweet

LAS VEGAS (AP) — Nevada’s most influential union is sending a subtle message to its members discouraging support for Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren over their health care stances even though the union has not yet decided if it will endorse a candidate in the Democratic presidential race.

The casino workers’ Culinary Union, a 60,000-member group made up of housekeepers, porters, bartenders and more who work in Las Vegas’ famed casinos, began distributing leaflets in employee dining rooms this week that push back against “Medicare For All,” the plan from Sanders and Warren to move to a government-run health insurance system.

The leaflet said “presidential candidates suggesting forcing millions of hard working people to give up their healthcare creates unnecessary division between workers, and will give us four more years of Trump.”

Health care is one of the biggest issues for the union, whose members have fought and negotiated for robust plans.
With voting in Nevada’s presidential caucuses scheduled to start in just over a week, the union’s message to stand firm against the health care plans could signify that union leaders worry their members are considering voting for those who would unravel the union’s crowning achievement.