Another Healthcare Union Backs Prop 40, The California Billionaire Tax

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The National Union of Healthcare Workers joins a growing list of healthcare unions backing Prop 40 to keep local hospitals open and healthcare affordable for millions

Emeryville, California – Trump’s “Big, Ugly Bill” slashed funding for healthcare in California to pay for more billionaire tax breaks, eliminating healthcare coverage for up to 3.4 million Californians and doubling health insurance premiums for millions more. Clinics across California are closing, hospitals are laying off workers, and life-saving services are being cut. Working families in California are already seeing their healthcare costs skyrocket, and it’s only getting worse.

In response, the National Union of Healthcare Workers (NUHW) is joining the growing list of healthcare unions endorsing Prop 40, the California Billionaire Tax, to make billionaires finally pay their fair share.

“Our hospitals in California are already severely understaffed, and the patients we serve are already waiting too long for care. President Trump’s budget cuts will soon make a bad situation much worse, and the only way to protect patients is to pass Proposition 40. Billionaires get so much out of California; they should put more in to keep hospitals and clinics open and ensure all Californians can still access critical medical care close to home,” said Nicholas Cordero, an NUHW Vice President at Providence St. Joseph Hospital.

As Trump’s massive federal healthcare cuts begin to rip healthcare away from millions of Californians, the nearly 20,000-member union NUHW is joining more than 200 organizations and lawmakers supporting Prop 40, which makes more than 200 California billionaires pay a modest, one-time tax to keep local hospitals and ERs open and healthcare affordable for millions of Californians. 

Billionaires already pay much lower tax rates than what working families pay out of every paycheck. They insist on paying less and sticking the middle class with the bill. 

Prop 40 will enact a tax paid ONLY by Californians worth more than $1 billion, a small group of people who together hold $2 trillion in wealth – most of which will never be taxed due to loopholes that favor the ultra-wealthy. 

By voting YES on Prop 40, California voters can raise about $100 billion to replace the healthcare funding Trump and his billionaire donors took from working people to hoard even more wealth. The funds will go to life-saving medical care for seniors, veterans, and families. It will allow millions of Californians to keep their health insurance and not see their premiums skyrocket. It will also help prevent teacher layoffs in our public schools and keep children fed through food assistance programs.

“Millions of Californians are already seeing their healthcare costs go through the roof – one day, they could wake up to find that their local hospital has closed, or their healthcare coverage has been cancelled,” said Debru Carthan, Executive Vice President of SEIU-UHW. “Prop 40 is the only viable solution to replacing the healthcare funding Trump took from us, instead of putting the greed of a couple hundred billionaires ahead of the needs of 39 million Californians. We are thankful that NUHW is joining the fight to pass Prop 40. Together we can save lives and tax billionaires.” 

Voters consistently support the California Billionaire Tax by large, double-digit margins. Prop 40 qualified for the ballot after supporters submitted more than 1.6 million signatures from Californians across the state — nearly twice the number required to qualify — making it one of the strongest citizen-led ballot qualification efforts in California history.

The number of major supporters for the billionaire tax has far outpaced the groups opposing it. Prop 40 just scored a major victory with a “yes” vote endorsement from the California Democratic Party and the California Young Democrats. Hundreds of elected officials, labor unions, and community-based organizations have endorsed Prop 40, including the California AFL-CIO, the California Nurses Association, the California Young Democrats, U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders, Representative Ro Khanna, Teamsters California, AFSCME California, SEIU-UHW, Committee of Interns and Residents / SEIU, UNITE HERE Local 11, UNITE HERE Local 30, AFT Local 1521, Disability Voices United, Our Revolution California, Oxfam America, Color of Change, and many, many more. 

Not only did the organization endorse Prop 40, it also voted to officially oppose billionaires’ poison pill measures, Props 41 and 42. Both would attempt to undo the Billionaire Tax, undermining the will of voters and depriving potentially millions of children across the state of food assistance and healthcare access. 

More than 400 hospitals statewide have already laid off more than 3,400 healthcare workers, and a second wave of layoffs is expected as funding cuts from Trump’s “Big, Ugly Bill” hit healthcare providers. Statewide, projections show the cuts could result in the loss of up to 145,000 healthcare jobs, impacting hospitals, clinics, and home care providers. California has already been grappling with a longstanding shortage of healthcare workers, leaving hospitals and clinics stretched thin even before Trump’s cuts.

Without revenue from Prop 40, these federal healthcare cuts are expected to put an estimated 83 California hospitals and clinics at risk of closure. Cuts and closures have already started, impacting communities from Los Angeles to Oakland to Glenn County. 

About Prop 40, the California Billionaire Tax Act

Trump’s “Big, Ugly Bill” slashed funding for healthcare in California to pay for more billionaire tax breaks. These cuts eliminate healthcare coverage for up to 3.4 million Californians and double health insurance premiums for millions more. Prop 40, the California Billionaire Tax Act, will make billionaires finally pay their fair share in taxes to keep local hospitals and ERs open and healthcare affordable for millions of Californians.

Vote YES on Prop 40 to save lives, tax billionaires. 

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