Kennedy: Health Care To Be Top Priority Regardless Of White House Winner
WASHINGTON (PAI)--Passing universal health care will be the #1 priority of 
Senate Labor Committee Chairman Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) next year, 
regardless of who wins the White House this fall, the senator promised.
In a rousing speech Feb. 6 to the United Auto Workers’ legislative-political 
conference, Kennedy said “you’ve sacrificed wages and benefits to get health 
care. U.S. senators and federal employees get 200 options for their health 
care,” as does GOP President George W. Bush, he noted. And taxpayers pick up 73% 
of the cost.
“If that’s good enough for the president and the Republicans” who denounce 
universal health care “as socialism” but take advantage of it if they’re in 
Congress or the executive branch, “it’s good enough for the UAW” and workers, 
Kennedy declared.
“I’m going to assure you that no matter who wins the presidency, health care 
will be #1 on my agenda,” he concluded, to prolonged applause.
Health care was also a top topic on the agenda of the 1,000 conference delegates, who took time 
out from their meetings to lobby their lawmakers.
“We can’t do this by ourselves,” Gettelfinger said after his Feb. 4 keynote 
address to the delegates, referring to U.S. auto workers’ and companies’ 
handicaps in competition with foreign automakers. “How can we compete when South 
Korea brings in 700,000 vehicles a year to the U.S. and we have a closed market 
(of) 7,000 vehicles to them, and Japan has a closed market? And we’ve got to do 
something about health care, if we are to fix our problems” in the auto 
industry.
The UAW strongly backs government-run single-payer health care, based on 
Medicare and eliminating the insurance companies, their high co-pays and 
deductibles and denial of care. But the sole presidential hopeful who backed 
single-payer health care, Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) is now out of the race. 
Rising numbers of union locals and state federations back single-payer, however.
Other topics on the UAW delegates’ roster included campaigning against future ‘free trade’ treaties, notably the one 
Gettelfinger cited with South Korea, as well as the one with Colombia, where 
Right Wing “paramilitaries” have murdered 2,000 unionists. 
While Kennedy said health care would be his top topic regardless of who is in 
the White House, Gettelfinger made it clear in the interview that for the UAW, 
the White House favorite will be a Democrat and not be Sen. John McCain 
(R-Ariz.). “We can’t live with him,” Gettelfinger said, adding only current 
anti-worker GOP President George W. Bush is worse. He said no GOPer polled above 
single digits in UAW surveys.