July 17, 2006

Dear Fortune 500 Leader,

The American health care system is failing. Costs are exploding, coverage is eroding, and technological advances and quality improvements are happening at far too slow a pace. Skyrocketing health care costs are a threat to the economic future of America and America's families. Our deteriorating health care system undermines the security and well-being of our people, and the burdens it imposes on business threaten our ability to compete in the global marketplace.

We need a uniquely American solution to this problem. And so I'm writing to put before you the unusual proposal that we team up - business, labor, and health experts - to develop a creative and innovative solution to our nation's health care crisis, one that serves working people and American business alike.

We still have 45 million people uninsured in this country - 35 million of whom are working. Every corporation is making painful cuts in benefits or absorbing enormous new costs, and finding it harder to recruit and retain the best and brightest. McKinsey & Co. projects that by 2008, the average Fortune 500 Company will spend as much on health care as they make in profit.

And perhaps the most distressing statistic of all: The U.S. now ranks 24th in the world in life expectancy.

Health care is one of those issues that everyone talks about, but hardly anyone does anything about. Polls show that the American people blame Congress and the White House and have lost confidence in our government's ability to develop a solution. I agree with them. If this problem is allowed to simmer in the politics of Washington, nothing substantial will be done. It's up to us to do this together - that's why I've also made this appeal to the business community in the editorial pages of today's Wall Street Journal, and at a speech to the Brookings Institution in June.

We can no longer tinker around the edges. The era of employer-based health care is quickly coming to an end, and now is the time for us to figure out together how we replace it with a 21st Century American health care system that works for everyone. We need change that's fundamental, not incremental. I believe that together we can produce that kind of change, if we have the courage to step out of our comfortable roles and work on this together for the good of our country.

Viable options are all around us. The health insurance system for federal employees, with its affordable multi-payer system and wide range of options in private plans, is a model that's worth exploring. Vermont and Massachusetts have each taken steps to provide health insurance for all their residents in the absence of any federal action, and more states are considering new ideas. Solving this problem is no longer about policy - there are lots of possibilities out there. It is about leaders in business and labor having the courage to step forward and change the future.

John F. Kennedy once noted that in China, the word "crisis" is composed of two characters. One represents danger. The other - opportunity.

I urge you to join me. Together, we can seize this opportunity, help solve the problem, and ensure the health of our nation in the decades ahead. I hope to hear from you soon.

Sincerely,

Andrew L. Stern
International President
Service Employees International Union