CalCare is good for Labor.

In support of the 2025 Medicare for All Act, Shawn Fain, President of the UAW, stated: “Health care should be a human right. But every time we negotiate with a boss for the right to see a doctor, they nickel and dime us until people have to choose between their health and putting food on the table. We’re sick of having to go on strike just to have decent health care. We’re sick of corporate America asking us to give up raises, retirement security, or work-life balance at the bargaining table so working-class people can avoid medical bankruptcy. Our current health care system is a con job that only works for the billionaire class. Medicare for All is common sense, and it’s what the working class needs. The UAW is proud to support this bill.”

The Medicare for All Act of 2025 is endorsed by: American Postal Workers Union, Association of Flight Attendants-CWA, International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE), International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers (IFPTE), International Union, United Automobile, Aerospace and Agricultural Implement Workers of America (UAW), National Domestic Workers Alliance, National Nurses United (NNU), National Union of Healthcare Workers (NUHW), Service Employees International Union (SEIU), Utility Workers Union of America, Radio & Machine Workers of America (UE).

The 2024 CalCare bill 2024 was endorsed by: Alameda Labor Council, Albany Teachers Association, Berkeley Federation of Teachers, California Conference of Machinists, California Faculty Association, California Federation of Teachers, California Labor Federation, AFL-CIO, California Nurses Association, California School Employees Association, California Teachers Association, Campbell High School Teachers Association, CFI Local 39000 - TNG/CWA, Contra Costa Labor Council, Federation of Retired Union Workers, IATSE Local 611, 705, & 871, International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, Local 1484, John Swett Education Association, Mt. Diablo Education Association, Napa Solano Central Labor Council, National Association of Social Workers (NASW) California Chapter, North Bay Labor Council, AFL-CIO, Oak Grove Educators Association, Oakland Education Association, Peralta Federation of Teachers, Sacramento Central Labor Council, San Diego and, Imperial Counties Labor Council, San Mateo Labor Council, Santa Clara County Federation of Retired Union Members, Santa Monica-Malibu Classroom Teachers Association, South Bay Central Labor Council, UAW Region 6, Unite Here Local 11, United Steelworkers Local 675, United Teachers of Richmond, CTA/NEA.

For full list of CalCare’s 250 endorsing organizations, scroll to the bottom of this page.

CNA’s Union Toolkit. Per CNA’s Labor FAQ:

Why should labor unions support CalCare when it could result in them having to give up their hard-won health plans?

  • The current system of employer-provided health insurance is unsustainable.

  • The average premium for employer-provided family coverage has increased 43% over the last ten years to $22,463 per year in 2022, increasing at a rate higher than wages or inflation, and the average deductible among all covered workers has increased 95%.

  • In addition to rising premiums and deductibles, the average coinsurance rate (the percentage billed after paying the deductible) for specialty care and hospital admission is 20%, and the average copayment is $344 per hospital admission.

Aren’t union negotiated health plans safer and more protected than other employer provided health plans?

  • Union-negotiated health care plans are not exempt from the trends of skyrocketing costs and diminishing plan benefits.

  • Employers are already fighting hard to impose higher cost sharing onto unionized workers, taking money out of workers’ pockets through higher health care costs and tradeoffs in wages at the bargaining table. 

  • Increasing costs of health care plans are impacting Taft-Hartley plans. An increasing number of multiemployer health plans have started imposing takeaways like higher deductible plans, restrictions on spousal coverage, and more. 

How would moving to CalCare impact the bargaining process?

  • Health care has consistently been one of the biggest sticking points in bargaining with employers. Prioritizing health benefits often results in little or no wage growth and no gains in other benefits.

  • In 2022, health care benefits were one of the top 2 demands when measured by number of strike days, second to increased pay. Health care was a demand in at least 77 different strikes, involving 46,691 workers, and counted for 1.26 MILLION strike days.

  • Health care benefits are often held hostage by employers as a strikebreaking tactic. Stanford threatened to cut off health care to over 5,000 nurses who were considering a strike in early 2022. During the 2019 General Motors strike involving 50,000 UAW members, GM cut off health care in retaliation for the strike, generating nationwide awareness and condemnation for the cruelty of this increasingly common tactic.

Health care is a major selling point during union drives. Won’t unions lose the “union advantage” if everyone has the same health care?

  • When health care is no longer on the table, workers will be in a better position to negotiate for higher wages, higher pension and retirement contributions, optimal staffing, longer breaks, better workplace protections, workplace violence policies, and other benefits and improvements in working conditions.

  • The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) found that wages would likely increase under a single-payer system like CalCare by removing employers’ role in providing health benefits. With health benefits off the table, unions could use their improved bargaining positions to ensure that members receive the increases in pay that may have been withheld up until now to preserve their health benefits.

  • Under CalCare, employers lose one of their key strikebreaking weapons: the threat to withhold health benefits. As strikes become more common, employers are going to use every tool in their arsenal to maintain their power and leverage over workers. Detaching health benefits from the employer removes a strikebreaking tool that employers have already shown themselves to be all too willing to use.

  • CalCare will strengthen the union advantage and allow for a more diverse range of uses for Taft-Hartley funds.

What will happen to Taft-Hartley funds under CalCare?

  • Union workers will be in better bargaining positions because health care and all the threats to take away health care benefits would be off the table and guaranteed under CalCare, dramatically increasing the scope of what is possible with Taft-Hartley funds.

  • Taft Hartley funds could see additional revenue to expand or add benefits because health benefits would now be covered under CalCare. Employer contributions not paid toward new taxes and health care contributions already paid into Taft-Hartley Funds could be used to expand other Taft-Hartley plan benefits or to add new benefits.

  • Examples of possible benefits that could be offered by Taft-Hartley plans include wrap-around health benefits not offered under a single payer system, expanded welfare benefits programs like disability and supplemental unemployment benefits, tuition and training funds, legal services, child and elder care, and more. In addition, funds from these plans could be used to cover employee contributions to the new single payer system, such as their share of a potential payroll tax. Finally, extra revenues could be reallocated to shore up pension plans. 

  • While health benefits under Taft-Hartley plans may ultimately be unnecessary under CalCare, workers would still have the ability to bargain over what happens to contributions already paid into these funds. Health benefit contributions would not be lost under CalCare, and there is still an important role for these plans to play in providing other health and welfare benefits to workers.