We at United Professionals waited quite anxiously for the details of Senator Hillary Clinton’s health care coverage proposals. When they finally arrived, we were disappointed — we had high hopes because she clearly has the capacity to understand the issues and the compassion to identify with those in need.

Here is our take on the issue of healthcare reform and the candidates’ plans in general: None of the proposals advanced so far resolve the problems that come with an employer-paid system of access to health insurance. You would still need a full-time job to get affordable coverage. Proposals that do not solve that problem do not, in fact, solve the problem of an affordable healthcare program — even though every industrialized nation in the world has managed the issue.

People with part-time jobs, no jobs, and the self-employed will still not have equal access to the system because they often cannot afford coverage — they will not belong to a risk pool that allows the cost of getting sick to be spread across a healthier/more cheaply covered population. And people with pre-existing conditions are unable to get coverage at all.

We wanted to give you our take on the issues and simultaneously start giving you plenty of information so you can make up your own minds. Therefore, we have included links to what the candidates and others are saying about healthcare. Try to ignore their rhetoric and pay close attention to whether they really address the problem: we have a system that keeps coverage from people when they need it most and makes coverage easy to get when needed least.

We have got to find a better way, but none of the proposals we have seen so far do that. Barbara Ehrenreich, Founder and Board Member, United Professionals

Links to Candidates’ Healthcare Plans:

Hillary Clinton: http://www.hillaryclinton.com/feature/healthcareplan/?sc=8

Barack Obama: http://www.barackobama.com/pdf/HealthPlanOverview.pdf

John Edwards: http://johnedwards.com/about/issues/health-care-overview.pdf

Mitt Romney: http://www.mittromney.com/Issue-Watch/Health_Care

Rudy Giuliani: http://www.joinrudy2008.com/commitment.php?num=7

Fred Thompson: http://www.fred08.com/Principles/PrinciplesSummary.aspx?View=OnTheIssues

John McCain: http://www.johnmccain.com

Dennis Kucinich:

http://www.dennis4president.com/go/issues/a-healthy-nation/

 Bill Richardson:

http://www.richardsonforpresident.com/issues/healthcare

 As a nonprofit organization, UP cannot legally endorse any candidate or legislation.

[Ed. note:   We inadvertantly left of the links for Dennis Kucinich and Bill Richardson.  Thanks to the observant supporters who pointed out our error!]

“(Money Magazine) — Writer Barbara Ehrenreich may be best known for chronicling the troubles of low-wage earners in her 2002 bestseller “Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America.”

But these days she’s putting her consciousness-raising to work for a less obviously needy group: white-collar workers.

Why? As Ehrenreich sees it, outsourcing, downsizing and increasing Wall Street pressure have made them as disposable as blue-collar workers. In September she launched United Professionals (unitedprofessionals.org) to support these “unemployed, under-employed and anxiously employed” Americans. …”

Click on link to article to read entire story

I work for a non-profit organization which gives full (and excellent) benefits for anyone working at least 20 hours a week. At this point, I do work 20 hours a week, but the grant dries up in June, so I’ll be job hunting at 60. Right now I’m listening to Barbara Ehrenreich on “City Arts & Lectures” and thought I’d sign up with your organization.