Gives Us a Stronger Voice to Hold Politicians Accountable

From the halls of Congress to state legislatures to cities and counties, elected leaders’ decisions on funding and regulations have a major impact on our jobs and the care we deliver. More than 60 percent of all healthcare financing comes from the federal and state government.

A national healthcare union will allow us to build a more effective, grassroots political action program to elect leaders who stand with us to improve healthcare. It will allow us to raise new resources to hold politicians accountable. And it will give us a bigger national platform to make sure healthcare and worker issues are addressed by all presidential candidates in national elections.

Annually, Congress makes decisions that provide —or take away—tens of billions of dollars in funding for hospitals and long term care—money that can help us improve healthcare, or undermine our efforts. At the state level, legislatures make decisions on how to allocate Medicaid funding for nursing homes, home care, and hospitals. Counties and cities play a key role as our employers, as regulators of our facilities, and in deciding the future of our public health system. A national union will allow us to share strategies to spread good practices from one area to another, and stop bad practices that hurt us all.

But ultimately, we need to fix our broken healthcare system to ensure quality, affordable care for every man, woman, and child in America. An effective national voice for caregivers will place us even more firmly at the center of the healthcare debate, and allow us to play a decisive role in shaping the future of healthcare for decades.