Sarah Solon

Watch and Learn All About Fair Share (DMI launches an online video of its latest event)

First the politics. Then the policy.

MSNBC.com reports today that Eliot Spitzer has accepted the Working Families Party's nomination for governor, but not necessarily its pet legislation: The Fair Share for Health Care Bill. According to WFP's Chairman Dan Cantor, the party's heavily unionized membership has spurred hefty discussion about health care up in Albany, putting this issue in the legislative spotlight. In a hopeful assessment of the long legislative road to holding corporations accountable for their fair share of employee health care costs, Cantor claimed that his party has "set the stage." And that "Eliot's got to do something next year."

Specifically targeting firms with 100 or more employees, The Fair Share for Health Care bill asks that companies who can afford it stop pushing their employees onto the Medicaid rolls and start either paying for medical insurance or paying a modest amount into a special fund to cover employee health costs.

The debate about this legislation is near and dear to DMI's recent Marketplace of Ideas series, in which we featured the big names in the conversation about wading into universal health care. Because this specific bill is modeled on a bill written by Maryland State Senator Gloria Gary Lawlah, she was the featured speaker at DMI's latest event. She sat on a panel alongside NYS Senator Diane Savino, Dan Cantor, and Andrea Batista Schlesinger. And bright and early on May 10th, these names debated the merits and demerits, the politics and the policy of the different bills on the table and of finding a solution that works for the 45 million Americans currently without health care coverage.

And what lucky timing! We have loaded a video of this Marketplace of Ideas event onto our site. So please - watch, wise up, and get ready for the big legislative push.

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Posted at 10:54 AM, Jun 12, 2006 in
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