Even Stranger Bedfellows

Last month, as noted here, the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) joined the Divided We Fail coalition including the Business Roundtable and AARP to find solutions to the Nation's health insurance coverage problem. Today. the SEIU and the Communications Workers of America joined the Better Health Care Together coalition with a similar purpose that includes the labor movement's pariah, Wal-Mart, and several other large employers. According to the coalition's press release

America's health care system is broken. The traditional employer-based model of coverage in its current form is endangered without substantial reform to our health care system. It is being crushed by out of control costs, the pressures of the global economy, and the large and growing number of uninsured. Soaring health costs threaten workers' livelihoods and companies' competitiveness, and undermine the security that individuals of a prosperous nation should enjoy. We can only solve these problems -- and deliver health care that is high quality, affordable, accessible and secure -- if business, government, labor, the health care delivery system and the
nonprofit sector work together.
Specifically, the four principles are:
1. We believe every person in America must have quality, affordable health insurance coverage;
2. We believe individuals have a responsibility to maintain and protect their health;
3. We believe that America must dramatically improve the value it receives for every health care dollar; and,
4. We believe that businesses, governments, and individuals all should contribute to managing and financing a new American health care system.

This obviously is easier said than done, but it is more likely that results will be deliver through such cooperative efforts.