Article December 21, 1918 Issue

It is estimated that compulsory health insurance in Illinois...

Walter H. Van Zwoll

Rockford (Ill.) Republic

It is estimated that compulsory health insurance in Illinois would call for a twenty per cent contribution by the state, or about twelve million dollars. To provide this amount state taxes would need to be almost doubled, and over forty-five million dollars more would have to be paid by the workman and his employer.

It will interest your readers to know that the executive council of the American Federation of Labor, on July 26 at Atlantic City, adopted the following resolution in opposition to social insurance, which, as its text shows, is of broad application: "Resolved, That the executive council of the American Federation of Labor is opposed to any plan of compulsory insurance. So long as wage workers are capable of performing their work in a satisfactory and efficient manner, this should be sufficient qualification for them to secure and retain employment in shipyards and elsewhere without further restrictions."

The national convention of the American Federation of Labor, held last June, expressed in a resolution the sentiment that the social health insurance movement is not friendly to labor, and that its free employment of funds in many states lends suspicion to its activity. The legislative agent for the Massachusetts branch of the American Federation of Labor stated last July that organized labor was not supporting a proposed amendment to the Massachusetts state constitution giving the General Court authority to establish systems of social health insurance. The Boston Central Labor union formally protested against the proposed amendment, branding the proposition as unfair to the laboring man and to women. It is significant that opposition to the social insurance proposal resulted in its rejection by the Massachusetts constitutional convention on July 30, 1918.

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