SEIU and Wal-Mart Agree

This is progress. A decade ago, it would've been hard to imagine Big Business jumping on the universal health coverage bandwagon, but here it is. According to the Progressive Policy Institutes's Health Policy Wire, Wal-Mart, SEIU and several other companies have joined together to push for universal health coverage. They agreed on this definition of the problem:

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.

And these four principles for fixing the problem:

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;
4. We believe that businesses, governments, and individuals all should contribute to managing and financing a new American health care system.