Most big employers plan to shift a larger share of health-care costs to their workers next year, according to a survey to be released Thursday.

Editor -

How much will it take for workers to support a national health care plan? What is the difference between exorbitant premiums/deductibles/co-pays, and a health care tax that shifts the burden to a larger pool? Never mind that it would also lower the cost of doing business

THINK MASSACHUSETTS doesn’t need national health reform? Think again. A national health care reform bill would bring millions of dollars to Massachusetts, easing pressure on the state budget, creating jobs, and enabling thousands more to get coverage.

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Cape Cod Times -

He and Jan are hoping they can stay well for a few more years, until Medicare kicks in. As for their daughter, she's resigned to a life without health care.

"None of my friends have insurance," Morgan said. "I try not to ever go to the doctor because I can't afford it. I should probably go to the dentist at some point, but I can't afford that either."

Your typical American family.

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Washington Post - Individual insurance rates soar in 4 states

St. Gelais said he himself had a very similar accident about ten years ago, and it hasn’t slowed him down. He can serve as a morale booster for the employee, he said.

Editor - I guess this worker should be glad to have a boss like this

There’s something wrong when workers have to choose between keeping a job and taking care of themselves or their families when someone gets sick. There’s something wrong when going to a routine medical appointment or other preventative care could result in a pink slip. There’s something wrong when a domestic-violence survivor seeking help or services is punished with the loss of her job.

The California Senate approved creating a government-run health care system for the nation's most populous state on Thursday, ignoring a veto threat from Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Supporters said it is time for state legislatures to take up the debate as the Obama Administration's national health care proposal falters in Congress.

Thus, Massachusetts was the worst state in which to test the wider public’s feelings about national health-care reform. Polls showed people in Massachusetts, as elsewhere, unhappy with the legislation in Washington. But those numbers include many who thought the reforms too weak or were simply disgusted by the legislative sausage-making. And whether these proposals were better than nothing is a meaningless question to people who already have something.

AS A cancer patient, I have been watching the debate in Washington around health care reform with great interest. I am dismayed at the threat of 41 senators holding the nation hostage and blocking needed reform. But I am even more dismayed at the willingness of the Democratic leadership to bow to this small group.

In a significant victory for unions, the 40 percent excise tax would not apply to policies covering workers in collective bargaining agreements, state and local workers, and members of voluntary employee benefit associations through Dec. 31, 2017.

Labor leaders are pushing hard on President Barack Obama and Senate Democrats to drop a proposed new tax on high-value health insurance plans, warning of political consequences.

Safety doesn’t come cheap.  It costs money to establish and maintain a safe workplace, which is why union shops have better safety records than non-union shops (e.g., approximately 90% of mining accidents occur in non-union mines).

The federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration has fined a Pembroke construction company $55,200 for allowing a worker into a trench that was at risk of caving in.

President Barack Obama signaled to House Democratic leaders Wednesday that they'll have to drop their opposition to taxing high-end health insurance plans to pay for health coverage for millions of uninsured Americans.

LINCOLN, R.I. -- Police on Tuesday said that a worker was injured in an industrial accident at a construction site on the property of the Calise & Sons Bakery, Quality Drive.

The victim, 50, suffered an apparently serious leg injury around 8 a.m., police said. He was taken to Rhode Island Hospital. Police did not immediately identify him.

Police said that the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration would investigate.

Two construction workers were hurt Wednesday morning in a wall collapse at a new housing development in Rehoboth.

 

OSHA has agreed to interview workers directly when auditing employer-provided injury data, and to minimize any delay between when employers report injuries and audits occur. Improvements in workplace safety would be greater if both companies and their employees would come forward with injury information more reliably - and not wait for OSHA to correct unsafe conditions. 

An employee of a local trucking company was killed in an apparent accident when he was pinned between a forklift and cement pole.

The unions have few illusions that the public option will be restored in the House-Senate conference committee, but they are working to promote the chief funding mechanism in the House bill (a tax hike on individuals with incomes over $500,000 and couples with incomes over $1 million) over that in the Senate bill (a tax that, to start, will fall on health insurance policies that cost more than $23,000 for a family of four). With medical costs unchecked by a public option and drug reimportation, they fear that the value of their members' policies will rise above the threshold by the middle of the next decade.

This week the sincere effort of millions of people across the nation once
again proved effective in the face of determined opposition from the White
House and Congress, as single payer health reform reached another
milestone in its historic journey.

The nation's largest union group said Thursday that it will not support the Democratic health-care bill unless "substantial changes" are made to the current Senate version.

Celia Wcislo, who works for a union that includes most of the employees at Cape Cod and Falmouth hospitals, fears that Congress will pay for health reform with a tax on insurance plans that will hurt individuals already financially stressed by rising premiums.

Indeed, by early Monday evening, the AP reports, Senate Democrats appeared to be moving away from the Medicare compromise, which may  be the last vestige of reform left for progressive activists to hold on to. Yet Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH) declared Monday on MSNBC, "We're going to keep fighting to make it better." He added, "It's a good bill, but not a great bill."

The bill "is a fiscally responsible bill that will cover 96 percent of Americans, end insurance company discrimination and denials of care and equip health care providers with the tools they need to lower costs for families and the country as a whole,"  AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka said. "The bill...does not attempt to finance reform on the backs of the working middle class... But we still have a long way to go."

Question: How do you get away with murder?

Answer: Hire your victim.

Sixteen workers are killed a day in the United States because of reckless negligence on the part of their employers. Under existing laws, these employers get a slap on the wrist, or walk away scot-free. Meanwhile, workers who blow the whistle face threats and retaliation at the workplace.

Sign the Petition

Hospital executives and the state’s biggest nurses union resumed their ongoing battle over legislation that would require the state to set minimum nurse-patient staffing ratios.

Workers at many retailers and restaurants say their employers’ policies discourage them from calling in sick. At Wal-Mart, when employees miss one or more days because of illness or other reasons, they generally get a demerit point. Once employees obtain four points over a six-month period, they begin receiving warnings that can lead to dismissal.

Debora Spano, director of public relations for UnitedHealthcare, told Darling that they couldn't find his file. She also said that the company officers the protesters wanted to speak with were not available.

The public option lives.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) announced Monday that the bill he will bring to the Senate floor will include a public health insurance option that individual states could decline to participate in.