Author: RFPU

The Resident & Fellow Physician Union – Northwest board is proud to join numerous other local and national unions and healthcare advocacy groups in endorsing Washington state representative Pramila Jayapal’s Medicare for All Act of 2021 (H.R. 1976).

This bill would establish a national single payer universal healthcare system, bringing the United States up to speed with many other nations around the world to provide universal access to affordable healthcare. 

Representative Jayapal’s endorsement says it all: “Today’s healthcare system fails to provide quality, therapeutic healthcare as a right to all people living in the United States. Nearly 30 million Americans are uninsured, and at least 40 million more cannot afford the costs of their co-pays and deductibles. The quality of our healthcare is much worse than other industrialized countries—the life expectancy in the U.S. is lower than other nations, while our infant mortality rate is much higher. Yet the U.S. spends more money per capita on healthcare than any other industrialized nation. We waste hundreds of billions of dollars every year on unnecessary administrative costs, while healthcare industry executives measure success in profits, instead of patient care. The current healthcare system in the United States is ineffective, inefficient and outrageously expensive. It is time to remove the profit motive in healthcare, to resolve the inefficiencies and to guarantee quality, therapeutic healthcare to every person living in the United States.”

Many residents and fellows and our families have personally been uninsured, underinsured, or impacted by high healthcare costs. We have all seen the effects of lack of insurance, high cost to consumers, and profit-driven insurance decisions on our patients. Yet, US physicians have long failed to advocate for universal coverage. Worse, the AMA has overtly opposed nationalized healthcare for decades. Lack of insurance coverage has the most devastating impact on marginalized communities, including low-wage earners and communities of color. Achieving universal coverage is an issue of health equity, racial justice, and workers’ rights. Complicity with the current system directly violates our ethical imperative to be agents of justice in the practice of medicine.

No bill or system is perfect, but the current Medicare for All bill is a significant step in the ongoing process to achieve universal, affordable coverage and restructure healthcare for patients and workers. As physicians, we must advocate for all of our patients and our communities by demanding change to our disastrous for profit healthcare system and re-centering the patient-physician relationship. Public trust in physicians has been falling for some time – something we saw contribute to the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Americans during the COVID pandemic. Now is the time to earn back the trust of our communities by joining them in advocating for this important piece of legislation. Still, passing M4A is not enough. We must fight for a seat at the table to shape single payer health insurance and ensure that efficiency, equity, and evidence are prioritized in M4A’s implementation.

We applaud Representative Jayapal for advocating for the most vulnerable in our society, and encourage other physician groups and union partners to join in support of Medicare for All.

Resources:

Frequently Asked Questions about Medicare For All – National Nurses United

As union members, we are lucky to work in one of the most unionized and labor friendly states in the country. That being said, there was a mountain of hurdles we had to overcome to unionize and we still face a huge fight in bargaining our contract and holding our employer accountable. 

The Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act is the biggest labor reform bill our country has seen in decades. This bill promotes workers’ rights to organize a union and bargain collectively. 

RFPU – NW supports the PRO Act because we believe all workers, regardless of their employer and the state they work in, should have the right to collectively organize and bargain. 

The PRO Act has already passed the House of Representatives and still needs three more Senate co-sponsors to be introduced on the Senate Floor. Workers across the country are tirelessly organizing to pressure Senators Mark Warner (VA), Mark Kelly (AZ), and Krysten Sinema (AZ) to join as co-sponsors.

HOW YOU CAN HELP: 

If you are from Virginia or Arizona: we encourage you to call your Senators in support of this bill. All you have to do is call their office and say “Please Co-Sponsor the PRO Act.”

If you’re not from one of these states, but want to help: there are daily phone and text banks you can join for any amount of time you’re available. Reach out and we’ll get you looped in! 

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Interested in learning more? 

• The PRO Act Could Transform The Labor Landscape
• The PRO Act is the Labor Reform Workers Need and Deserve
• Biden Must Pass the Protecting the Right to Organize Act
• The PRO Act: Giving Workers More Bargaining Power on the Job

It’s time to start to think about the 2021 elections! Local elections are critical to seeing progress in our local labor movement, and various issues that intersect with healthcare accessibility. RFPU – NW is committed to supporting candidates who will fight to make Seattle and our region equitable for those who live here (including our patients).

This year we will be supporting candidates for City Council, (potentially County Council), and Mayor of Seattle. You are our union, so we need your help! We are seeking new members to join our Political Advocacy Working Group.

We estimate that the endorsements process will be a 3-4 hour commitment, spread over two (virtual) meetings in May. As a member of the political advocacy working group you will assist with updating our candidate questionnaire, review the submitted questionnaires, rate candidates based on criteria that aligns with our mission and values, and make endorsement recommendations. The working groups’ recommendations will then go on to our full dues-paying membership to approve.

You don’t need to have prior political experience, just an interest in supporting intersectional, pro-labor candidates. The working group is open to all dues-paying members, including incoming ‘21-22 members who have filled out a membership card.

Fill out this form if you’re interested in joining the Political Advocacy Working Group!

If you want to partake in the endorsements process, please fill out the form by May 1st. We will then follow up with a doodle to schedule the meetings and get you in the slack group.

If you are unable to join the endorsement process, the working group still does work throughout the year and accepts team members on a rolling basis.

In solidarity,

RFPU – NW Political Advocacy Working Group