Issues

December 2003/January 2004

NOTE: The online version of this newsletter has been edited to comply with Federal Election Commission regulations.

The Workplace and the Polling Place are Inseparable: Looking Ahead to the 2004 Elections.

Women's Issues are Political Issues

There is a lot at stake for women in the upcoming elections, and the polls are the best place to ensure that women win in 2004. Politics are important in all of our lives, and our voice and vote do make a difference. Being educated and informed on the issues is an important first step, but even this is not enough. As we move toward election time we all need to get involved, and there are a lot of ways to help. Write letters to your representatives, volunteer on a local or national campaign, talk with your friends, family and co-workers about the issues, write newsletters and editorials, donate money and time to candidates you care about, start a voter registration drive, and, of course, vote.

Health Care: Women's Number One Concern

In the 2002 AFL-CIO Working Women survey, women identified health care as the single most important legislative priority for working women. Accessible, quality health care for all women and children is the ultimate goal, but the Bush administration has fallen far short of that goal.

Bush believes that he and a few fellow male lawmakers know what is best for you and your reproductive health. In the 2002 budget, President Bush proposed eliminating required contraception coverage for federal employees and for federal employee's dependents. Lawmakers in both houses of Congress fought to keep the provision that requires federal health plan providers to offer federal employees birth control coverage. On November 5th, Bush signed into law the most significant restriction on abortion in the 30 years since the Supreme Court legalized abortion for all women, even though a nearly identical law was found unconstitutional by the Supreme Court in 2000 because it endangers women's lives. The Bush administration also supports abstinence-only sex education, as opposed to comprehensive sex education that teaches abstinence and provides medically accurate information on contraception, STD's and sexual activity. These abstinence-only programs are medically inaccurate, unproven, dangerous for our youth, and often violate the separation of church and state. The Bush administration has taken your federal tax dollars away from proven pregnancy prevention programs to pay for unproven and unrealistic abstinence-only education.

It is time to take women's health care back into our own hands. We can decide for ourselves what is best for our bodies, our reproductive health and our children's health education. Working women everywhere need a President that votes in favor of women's health and allows women to make decisions for themselves.

For more information on these issues and how to get involved see the National Organization for Women and The Truth About George websites.

Women and Medicare Reform

The most recent healthcare issue the Bush administration has supported is the new prescription drug plan and Medicaid reform. This legislation seriously affects women because older women utilize more prescription medications and have less retirement income. Analysts have predicted that costs will go up for those seniors leaving traditional Medicaid to get a slightly more generous drug benefit from the new privatized providers. There will be no guarantee of coverage with the privatized providers like there is in the government run Medicaid program. This means private insurers can raise costs, lower benefits and drop patients as they see fit. While the AARP did support this bill, only eighteen percent of AARP members did. It has also been found that AARP worked closely with Republican senators in drafting the bill, and AARP stands to make millions in insurance royalties and investment income when the privatization of Medicaid takes effect.

The claim that the new bill provides prescription drug benefits for all seniors is simply not true. The plan requires patients to pay large portions of their drug costs, only covers a certain dollar amount a year, and also requires higher premiums.

The Republicans are looking to claim a sizable chunk of the senior vote in 2004 by using the success of pushing through their Medicaid bill in their campaigns. The bill is also good news for prescription drug companies, because it does not allow the government to bargain for lower drug costs or import drugs for reduced costs from Canada. Pharmaceutical companies, insurance companies, and the campaign funds of Republicans are the true benefactors of this new program.

To learn more about the problems with the Medicaid bill, how the Republican party and wealthy Americans will benefit from its passage, and what you can do, see the TomPaine, AFSCME, and National Organization for Women websites. 

Women and Health Insurance

Many women in the United States lack access to basic healthcare services, including preventative and prenatal care. The number of women in the United States who do not have health insurance has grown three times faster than the number of men without health insurance over a five-year period. The United States Federal Government set a goal to improve women's health, including reducing stroke deaths, high blood pressure, diabetes, unintended pregnancy, osteoporosis and maternal mortality. But, the Bush administration and the federal government are not taking this goal seriously. The best way to guarantee better health for women is quality medical care covered by insurance, but 19.4 million women are currently uninsured. Providing health insurance to these women and their families should be a national health priority, but instead federal tax money is going toward dismantling Medicaid, waging war, and tax breaks for the rich.

Fourteen percent of women eighteen and over are uninsured, and a significant portion of insured women lack insurance that covers all of their health needs. This figure only increases with age, as one in five women of reproductive-age are uninsured. The problem is also worse for minority women. Latina and African-American women are two to three times more likely to be uninsured than white women are: 37 percent of Latina women and 23 percent of African-American women are uninsured, compared to thirteen-percent of white women. Uninsured women are more likely to postpone needed care, skip important screening tests, be diagnosed in more advanced disease stages, and die earlier.

There are various bills pending in Congress that seek to improve women's health. These bills need to become a priority of the Bush administration and Congressional leaders to help improve the health status of women. Universal Health Coverage is the best way to insure that all women, men and children in the United States have access to affordable and equitable medical care. Bush has refused to consider universal health care and instead favors more control by pharmaceutical and insurance companies and privatization of Medicaid and other programs. The Start Healthy, Stay Healthy Act would allow states to extend Medicaid coverage through the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) to prevent women who currently do not meet the states' income eligibility requirements for public health coverage. The Transitional Medical Assistance (TMA) program provides transitional support to women and their families moving from welfare to work who generally have extremely low-paying jobs that do not provide health insurance. The last helpful bill is the Equity in Prescription Insurance and Contraception Coverage Act (EPICC). This bill would require insurance plans that provide prescription drug coverage to provide prescription contraception coverage. We must urge our Congressional representatives to take theses bills seriously and work to help the 19.4 million women and their families that do not have health insurance.

For more information on these issues and bills see The National Women's Law Center.

State Budget Deficits and Federal Budget Basics

Many states are still facing potentially large budget shortfalls for state fiscal year 2005, which begins July 1, 2004. In the 21 states that budget shortfalls have already been identified, the amounts total about 40 to 41 billion dollars. Many states will need to raise taxes and cut spending in the coming fiscal year to balance their budgets, the same tactics that most states have already had to enact. Healthcare and education have been cut in most states and will likely take another hit. Imposing new tax burdens on middle and lower-class families, who have already born the majority of the tax increases so far, will most likely occur. The Federal Government is doing very little to help the states overcome these budget shortfalls and offset costs.

One of the reasons for the state's fiscal crisis is new homeland security measures. Contrary to popular belief, the Pentagon's 400 billion dollar budget includes very little money for homeland security. This expense primarily falls on the budgets of state and local governments. The Pentagon's 400 billion dollar budget is 51 percent of the total federal budget, and the U.S. spends almost as much on its military as the rest of the world combined. While programs for people, such as housing and education, are being cut, Pentagon spending is growing at an alarming rate. The 400 billion dollar budget is 132 billion more than the Pentagon budget for 2000. Not only is this increase unrelated to homeland security, it also does not include funding for the war in Iraq. In 2003, Congress approved an addition 79 billion dollars in April to pay for the war in Iraq and another 87.5 billion in November.

The states are facing the worst fiscal crisis since WWII and are being forced to cut services and raise taxes. Governors have urged the federal government to pay more of the costs of federal mandates in education (such as the new No Child Left Behind legislation, Head Start programs and required teacher and student testing), Medicaid and domestic security, but President Bush has offered no real help. The federal budget is a statement of our nation's values and priorities, and right now the priorities are war and weapons.

For more information on the federal budget and state fiscal crisis see Women's Actions for New Directions and The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.

Bush's Attack on Overtime Pay

Bush's Department of Labor has proposed changes to the Fair Labor Standards Act that have potential for denying overtime pay to millions of workers. Both houses of Congress recently voted to ban these rules from going into effect and the ban was included in the Labor appropriations (financial) bill. When the Republican leadership piled all the un-passed 2004 financial bills into one large, 820 billion dollar "omnibus" spending package, Bush threatened to veto the entire bill if the overtime pay protections were left in. So, the Republicans dropped the overtime protections that both houses, and both parties, had voted for.

Analysis by the Economic Policy Institute shows that 2.5 million salaried workers will lose their right to overtime pay and an additional 5.5 million hourly workers are at risk of being shifted to salaried employment and losing their eligibility for overtime pay if this bill passes. Many employers would assign overtime work to employees who are exempt from overtime pay and eliminate overtime work opportunities for other overtime-eligible workers. This means that all workers lose. The House of Representative has already passed this bill, and now it is in the hands of the Senate. Please contact your senators immediately and ask them to stand firm in supporting overtime pay for workers.

For more information on overtime pay, see the AFSCME, National Organization for Women and Economic Policy Institute websites. 

Get Involved

We encourage you to learn more about the current administration's record on issues that concern you. No matter what political party you usually support, it is clear the Bush administration is bad for labor, women and families. Let his record speak for itself and get informed about the issues. Get active in any way you can, even the "little" things help. Talk with your friends, family and co-workers, vote, get others to vote, volunteer your time, and together we can work to put the government back in the hands of its working citizens.

WomENews is produced by the Women's Rights Department and written by Sabrina Denney Bull.

 

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