John Conyers: “I was visited by the Michigan floral shop owners, small business people who were telling me they can hardly afford the…”

“I was visited by the Michigan floral shop owners, small business people who were telling me they can hardly afford the private health insurance coverage for their employees. And many of them are going to have to give up the practice of insuring for health purposes their employees because the costs are just too enormous. I am reminded of a discussion I had with the esteemed president of the United Automobile Workers, Mr. Ron Gettelfinger, who indicated that we have just about run out of how much unions in collective bargaining agreements can continue to give up in terms of the health care, employer-based health care that the United Automobile Workers have been working on for decades because the demands of the corporations, the automobile corporations, continue and insist at every round of collective bargaining to require more and more give-backs, higher premiums, and fewer services to be provided under the employer-employee health plan.”