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Today, Americans are being squeezed in every direction. Families are finding it harder and harder to keep a roof over their heads, meals on the table, and the lights on. At the center of this crisis? Healthcare. It’s a top priority for our union as we fight for a better life for all.
Recent national polling by KFF confirms what we already know: Healthcare now tops the list of what people worry about affording, outranking even groceries, utilities, and gas. And as frontline healthcare workers know too well, this affordability crisis only compounds the ills of a healthcare system that puts profits before patients.
For healthcare professionals, the Big Squeeze shows up every day at work—and then follows you home.
Spending time with our healthcare members, I see the toll it takes. At work, even more of your patients are delaying care and rationing medications because cost stands in the way. You were already propping up a broken system: Patient care choices too often dictated by corporate owners and their bottom lines. Dangerous understaffing. Crucial departments and even whole hospitals being shuttered. The constant risk of workplace violence—and now of raids by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (which you can read about in this issue). The moral injury of not being able to provide the care your patients deserve. The plague of medical debt, a leading cause of bankruptcy in this country even for insured patients.
At home, you’re trying to make ends meet in the same tough economy as everyone else. Many of you carry significant educational debt. You worry about how to afford college for your kids and gas for your car. In a recent AFT survey, 74 percent of our members reported living paycheck to paycheck. Nearly half reported putting medical or dental care on a credit card in the past year.
This adds up to a public health crisis: Overworked healthcare professionals are crushed by caring for sicker patients, while enormous profits flow to those at the very top.
It’s all getting worse under President Trump. The war in Iran is costing a billion dollars a day and increasing the cost of practically everything we buy. And families are already paying $1,700 a year more for the basics because of Trump’s tariffs.
Billions for a war of choice that most Americans do not want—but none for food, housing, or healthcare? The refusal of Trump and congressional Republicans to extend Affordable Care Act subsidies has increased premiums by up to 114 percent for families. The GOP has inflicted massive cuts, nearly $1 trillion, on Medicaid—plus another $200 billion in cuts to food assistance, which will impact families’ health. (See here to learn more about these and other devastating cuts.) No matter who you voted for, you didn’t vote for this.
But we’re fighting back—fighting for a better life for all. Here’s some of what our union is doing right now:
Through organizing, contract negotiations, and state legislation, we’re winning safer staffing, professional-level pay, and more voice in care protocols.
Our Fight for Affordability campaign includes a suite of new consumer empowerment tools and expanded debt and financial literacy clinics that explain how to prevent and navigate medical debt, from avoiding surprise medical bills to appealing insurance claim denials.
We’re calling on more senators to sign on to the Working Americans’ Tax Cut Act, which I was proud to join Senators Chris Van Hollen and Mark Kelly, the Patriotic Millionaires, the AFL-CIO, and AFT members in launching. This act will ensure that multimillionaires finally start paying what they owe and that the working class gets a break.
When we band together, we win—and we’re going to show our collective power in November’s midterms. We’ll be getting out the vote for local, state, and national leaders who understand that families are struggling and will deliver the relief they need.
America is with us because what brings us all together is a vision that goes way beyond political parties. It’s labor’s vision: Fighting for working people to have a better life. Good wages. Affordable, high-quality healthcare. A secure retirement. Real opportunities for our children to do better than us. For you to be able to practice your profession free from moral injury—so your patients get the care they deserve.
[PHOTO CREDIT: Hailey Snow]