Unions go global to tell truth on NHS

Unions go global to tell truth on NHS

Wednesday 19 August 2009
by Tom Mellen

A three-million strong global union has launched a campaign to counter lies being spread by some opponents of the White House's health reform plans.

US rightwingers assert that US President Barack Obama's drive to guarantee affordable universal health-care amounts to a "socialist" takeover of the private insurance industry.

But the Workers Uniting union, a partnership between British union Unite and the US-Canadian United Steelworkers (USW), observed that the establishment of "an egalitarian health-care system" is "about human and civil rights."

At present, 46 million US citizens who cannot afford private health insurance have to fend for themselves if they fall ill.

Mr Obama's plan, which would cost up to £900 billion, would require employers to either furnish "meaningful coverage" for employees or contribute to a new public plan.

Republican and rightwing groups, backed by healthcare privateers, assert that the introduction of a universal insurance system would unfairly compete with private-sector plans.

And failed Republican vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin has implied that introducing "socialised health care" would entail the establishment of euthanising "death panels"where the elderly and infirm would be obliged to plead with faceless bureaucrats for their life.

Workers Uniting has used its website and popular social networking sites to expose this right-wing "nonsense."

http://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/index.php/news/world/Unions-go-global-to-tell-truth-on-NHS

http://38degrees.org.uk/page/s/NHStellthetruth

The NHS may not be perfect, but it is worth standing up for. Add your name and share your stories to give Americans the facts as they consider healthcare proposals.

Right there's a fierce debate in the US about Barack Obama's proposals for public healthcare, and our NHS has become a political football. Opponents, including some British conservatives, are attacking the NHS for political purposes.

We've made it easier to tell ordinary Americans the truth about NHS, by teaming up with a leading American web site. By adding your name to our message, and sharing your stories our how the NHS has benefited you or your family, you can help Americans consider their own healthcare choices with facts not fiction about our system.

Mother Jones is a US web site and magazine which reaches over 2 million Americans every week. They want to cover our perspective on the NHS. As editor Jay Harris says: "Right now, the media coverage about the future of my country’s healthcare system is filled with distortions and lies about the NHS. Ordinary British people can help bring sanity – and facts - back into this debate by stepping up to set the record straight. Please help!”