Labor rekindles reform.

Abstract

The health care crisis is back. There is intensifying sentiment across the country that universal coverage is our only way out. The labor movement has used historically such opportunities for change to win health benefits at the bargaining table and strengthen the social safety net. Eighty years of incremental victories and many failed attempts at major health reform have taught labor a crucial lesson: we must build a powerful grassroots movement to drive our effort to achieve universal coverage, or it is doomed to be corrupted by those wedded to the status quo. Now is the right time for reform.