WHEREAS:

            Our health care system is in the midst of historic reform made possible by passage of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) in 2010, which aims to expand coverage, control costs and enhance the quality of health care coverage for all Americans; and

WHEREAS:

            In the two years since the ACA’s enactment, many important provisions have been implemented, providing millions of children, young adults, families and seniors with improved and/or new health care coverage; and

WHEREAS:

            Early benefits provided by initial implementation of the ACA include:

eliminating lifetime limits on health care coverage for more than 105 million Americans;

allowing 2.5 million young adults to gain health insurance through their parent’s health plan;

furnishing 54 million Americans with access to free preventive services coverage;

requiring insurers to spend a minimum amount of premium dollars on health care and quality improvement activities, rather than on marketing and administrative overhead; and

saving seniors more than $2 billion in drug costs through the incremental closure of the “donut hole”; and

WHEREAS:

            While most AFSCME members have health insurance coverage, and have benefited from the various provisions of the ACA, the cost of coverage continues to escalate, placing employees and employers alike under financial pressure. This pressure has resulted in attacks on employee health care benefits nationwide; and

WHEREAS:

            Key elements of the ACA have yet to be implemented. The law’s most significant reforms – including creation of state-based exchanges to facilitate purchasing insurance, expansion of the nation’s Medicaid safety net and payment reforms designed to reward quality and control costs – are scheduled to be implemented over the next two years; and

WHEREAS:

            Opponents of the ACA continue to press their efforts to repeal or defund the law and to challenge it in the U. S. Supreme Court at the national level, while seeking to block or slow its implementation at the state level.

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED:

            That AFSCME will continue to fight to protect our members’ health benefits, which underscore the value of union jobs.   We will defend the ACA, which will improve the system of health care and health coverage for all Americans, and oppose any efforts to dismantle it; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED:

            That AFSCME and its affiliates will continue to work toward the law’s implementation, helping shape the federal-state partnership necessary for its full realization and educating members on the benefits of the ACA.