Public Option, Unions, Obligation, Part 1

This is episode 50, “Public Option, Unions, Obligation, Part 1.“

My guest, James McGee, has spent his career in and around collectively bargained benefit plans, especially health care plans. He has primarily worked on union benefit plans, which are technically known as Taft-Hartley plans. 

Mr. McGee recently retired after 17 years working for the Transit Employees' Health & Welfare Fund as its Executive Director. The Fund provides the health care benefits for the active and retired members of ATU Local 689 employed by the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA). In this role, he become acutely aware of the deficiencies of our current health care system and began to take an active role in organizations advocating for reform, especially a single-payer solution.

Mr. McGee is on the Steering Committee of the Labor Campaign for Single-Payer, the Montgomery County Chapter of Healthcare-NOW, and on the Board of Directors of Universal Health Care Action Network (UHCAN).

My interview with Mr. McGee covers two episodes 50 and 51. This episode discusses problems with the public option. Part 2, available on March 1st, discusses how unions would benefit from Medicare for All and why health care is an obligation. 

Do not miss this episode as Mr. McGee explains why the public option is bad for the public.