Flight Attendant President: We Support Medicare For All
Jackie Reddy August 16, 2019
The president of the Association of Flight Attendants has spoken in support of a “Medicare for All”-style healthcare provision. In comments made earlier this week, Sara Nelson said that healthcare has been a long-running sore point among union members, who have to trim member benefits to cut costs.
Sara Nelson, president of the Association of Flight Attendants (AFA), has been outspoken in expressing her organization’s support for “Medicare for All”, The Hill reports. Seen as an alternative to the introduction of an Obama-style plan, this healthcare plan would essentially end the need for the provision of private insurers.
This style of coverage has received considerable support from certain members of the Democratic Party.
Speaking to Hill.TV earlier this week on the subject on behalf of the labor body’s approximately 50,000 members, Nelson said, “This is really something that is very unifying for union members across the country and for all the people that they care about who are not union members and don’t have access to the same health care.”
She also explained that healthcare has been a long-standing sore point among union heads, who have sometimes been forced to slash member benefits in order meet the cost of coverage.
Nelson added, “Union leaders are coming back and saying, ‘hey, our companies are saying they can’t afford this health care where do you want to take the cost cuts,‘ and continued on by saying, “Do you want to take it in the premiums, do you want to take it in the deductibles… so the discussion is always around how are we going to minimize the damage of it being eroded.”
[Featured Image: Hill.TV]
as I figured lots of uninformed people making comments that they know very little about. Healthcare is getting more and more expensive and patients are going to be paying more and more. Medicare does work, the problem is that people are living longer and living unhealthy lifestyles. The big problem is the overhead in American healthcare, it's massive when compared to other countries. Stop using Canada as a comparison, we are not the same. A good question you should be asking is why are Americans going to other countries for healthcare, because it's cheaper!!
Let the Flight Attendants' Unions advocate for their members. Medicare for all won't work in the U.S. as it is proposed. The cost is just too much, and we have all heard of issues elsewhere, like Canada, where if one has an urgent issue, he/she tends to cross the border into the U.S., or the U.K. where you simply can't get treatment in a timely and good way. My wife has a not-so-common medical issue which could be fatal; because of our system here in the U.S., she was able to get treatment quickly enough to minimize the damage. She is in a support group with a number of people in the U.K. that have the same issue, and they can't even get in for treatment within months, and, not only that, much of the treatment they get is not only wrong, but dangerous. I have no problem with the Flight Attendants I have no issue with the Flight Attendants advocating for their group, and even supporting available options, but the plans as put forth by certain candidates amounts to providing medical care coverage for illegal aliens, and at the expense (in the TRILLIONS of Dollars) of the rest of us. It will quite simply break the budget.
JohnWB if Canadian single payer works, why do so many Canadians come to the US for care? Why did my friend, a former Olympian down hill skier lose the use of his arm because they made him wit 1 1/2 years to have a simple rotator cuff operated on. THINGS PEOPLE DON'T SEEM TO UNDERSTAND: 1. Medicare for Seniors doesn't work. 2. Medicare right now is NOT FREE. Money is taken out of your Social Security check to pay for it. If you want actual coverage that allows you to use doctors of your choice, get care when you need it, and not hand over your first born for medicines, you need SUPPLEMENTAL coverage, which can cost anywhere from $40-$198 a month, on top of the amount being taken from your social security check. 3. Seniors in the US receiving Medicare PAID FOR IT. Every single paycheck for their entire working lives had money taken to pay for future Medicare Benefits. Again - NOT FREE. 4. There is still a deductible. There is still co-pay. There are still costs to getting health care when you are on Medicare for Seniors. I don't know how Medicare for All will be any different. Same name, probably same animal. 5. The problem is not now, not ever, never has been the cost of Health Insurance. The problem is the Big Pharma stranglehold on the medical profession in America that drives up the cost of everything. The Second problem is the Tort System. If I am a medical doctor and even voluntarily assist someone in need, in the US that person can sue me even though it was free to them. Not sure how Medicare for All answers that problem. What we need is Big Pharma reform and Tort Reform. Both of those would go a long ways to solving this problem. 6. Why don't we all go to a catastrophic health coverage plan plus a Medical Savings Account. I used to have that. I didn't even have coverage till I was 30... and when I got it, I had catastrophic and MSA. With an MSA, you and your employer put $x into your account monthly. It accrues interest. If you need to go to the doctor, you have a debit card that pulls from that account. If you don't use it, it rolls over to the next year. If you stay healthy, you have a nice growing medical costs account that's there for any deductibles and co-pays, as well as OTC meds and anything else that fits under the guidelines. If you leave your company, the MSA follows you. This would solve a myriad of problems and be the best route for about 90% of the population. We could still have other plans available, but even as a Social Security/Medicare recipient, I would switch to that away from Medicare in a heartbeat. Sorry for the rant - but this has to be said!
Weren't those tariffs on Chinese products supposed to be raking in tons of money?
Really.. tell me how we are going to pay for it? and dont forget... freeeee college for all too...