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New York Labor Coalition Calls on the Wealthiest Americans to Pay Their Fair Share for Health Care Reform

August 16, 2009

DC 37

DC 37 Exec. Dir. Lillian Roberts speaking at a press conference for the health care campaign.

Photo Credit: Clarence Elie-Rivera

DC 37 activists joined other union members and community representatives at City Hall to urge their congressional leaders to support a U.S. House bill (HR 3200). The measure would impose an income tax surcharge on the richest one percent of Americans as a way to offset the cost of health care reform.

The event was part of the National Call-In Day for Health Care sponsored by Health Care for America Now! (HCAN) on July 28. AFSCME is a founding member of HCAN, a national grassroots campaign to win quality, affordable health care for all.

Several AFSCME affiliates participated in the nationwide action, generating close to 1,500 phone calls and 4,500 faxes to congressional offices. AFSCME members in Arkansas, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, North Carolina and North Dakota delivered letters to targeted members of Congress.
 
At the New York event, advocates for the tax plan cited two studies showing that increases on the wealthy are needed to reach the goal of health care for all.

The affordability study (www.hcanny.org), finds that health insurance premiums for New York’s working families have increased by 97 percent between 2000 and 2007 – the same period when their median earnings went up by only 11 percent.

The second report notes that the proposed income tax surcharge on married couples with an adjusted gross income of $350,000 ($280,000 for single taxpayers) would affect only 1.8 percent of New Yorkers.  Nationally, the plan would apply to less than 1.2 percent of all American taxpayers. (Copies of all 50 state reports are available at: http://www.ctj.org/payingforhealthcare.htm.)

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