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By Jon Silberg

Most of us, as members of the International Cinematographers Guild, receive health care and pension based on employer contributions. The Motion Picture Industry Health Plan is one of the main reasons why we joined this Union. This plan remains one of the greatest plans in the country and is a great accomplishment of the IATSE.

Senator John McCain’s health care plan calls for those employer contributions to be converted to taxable income, thereby increasing the average working family’s taxes. His plan offers a $5,000 tax credit for families ($2,500 for single people). With health care plan premiums costing more than $12,000 annually (and rising higher every year) that could result in a minimum of $7,000 to $9,500 additional taxable income. By eliminating the employer’s tax break for making health care contributions, Senator McCain’s plan may cause companies to drop their coverage altogether, shifting the entire burden of finding affordable health care to the worker. His call for deregulation of the insurance industry would prevent states from requiring insurers to pay for specific medical procedures or set minimum coverage standards.

Senator Barack Obama’s health care plan mandates that employers not offering to make a meaningful contribution to the cost of quality health coverage for their employees will be required to contribute a percentage of payroll toward the costs of the national plan. His plan will strengthen antitrust laws to prevent insurers from overcharging physicians for their malpractice insurance, promoting new models that improve patient safety, and it will repeal the ban that prevents the government from negotiating with drug companies, resulting in a potential savings as high as $30 billion. It will require providers to publicly report measures of health care costs and quality, including data on preventable medical errors, nurse staffing ratios, and disparities in care, with mandatory disclosure of the percentage of premiums that go to patient care as opposed to administrative costs.

Consider, as well, where the two candidates stand with regard to labor unions, the best protection middle class families have in this age of globalization and massive corporate cartels. Senator McCain has consistently voted to weaken Unions’ right to organize and bargain. He supports a National Right-to-Work Law and a veto of the Employee Free Choice Act (which guarantees American Workers the right to join a Union). Senator Obama was a co-sponsor of the Employee Free Choice Act, which, as noted, not only guarantees American Workers the right to join a Union, but also protects them as they bargain. Under an Obama-Biden administration the Employee Free Choice Act would become the law.

At the outset of this message I mentioned the words “public service”. We think of our elected officials as public servants, but as Americans, the right to vote in a Presidential election every four years is the most perfect realization of the words “public service”: service to your family, your industry, and your fellow union workers by selecting the individual who will shape the future of this nation.

You can make a difference in November if you get out and vote!

Fraternally, Steven Poster, ASC National President International Cinematographers Guild Local 600