At its December convention, the Indiana AFL-CIO became the 30th state federation to endorse HR 676, single payer healthcare legislation introduced by Congressman John Conyers (D-Michigan). The Indiana AFL-CIO represents 320,000 union members and retirees.

Endorsement resolutions were submitted to the convention by the Northwest Indiana Federation of Labor in Hammond and the White River Central Labor Council in Bloomington.

Steven E. Henderson, Staff Representative for the Indiana AFL-CIO, said of the endorsement of HR 676: “Starting in the mid-to-late 1980s, health care has been the number one issue in collective bargaining. We cannot, this time, allow the Insurance-Medical Complex to buy our legislators and congress to kill this needed law.”

Henderson noted that in the early 1990s many thought that Americans were not yet ready to accept a single payer system despite a report by the GAO that showed the effectiveness of single payer health care. “The State AFL-CIO now thinks that we are at that point, the single payer system is the only solution,” concluded Henderson.