Kaiser Institute Health Care Courses

Because workers need an in-depth knowledge of the rapidly changing health care industry as well as the skills to secure the best possible benefits for their unions, the National Labor College, in partnership with Kaiser Permanente, established the Kaiser Permanente Health Care Institute (KPHCI). The KPHCI will offer courses in the healthcare field as a part of our Bachelors Degree. Each year the KPHCI will also host a national conference on healthcare bargaining and benefits at NLC.

Three health care courses are currently available to students. Health Care Bargaining, is a semester-long course that begins online and requires face-to-face classes three hours per day for six days at the NLC during degree week. Health Care that Works: Reform or Band-aid is a semester long class that begins online and requires face to face classes three hours per day for six days at the NLC during degree week. The third class, Health Benefits Future, is offered in a fully online format. All courses are 3 credits.

To register for these classes you must print out the registration form and mail or fax it to the National Labor College. If you are not yet an NLC student, you will also need to apply to the college. If you encounter any problems with registration, please call or e-mail Jim Osborn at josborn@nlc.edu or 301-431-5421.

AETNA Scholarships

Women and people of color interested in taking either or both of these courses are eligible to apply for the AETNA Healthcare Scholarship for Minority Students in the labor movement. Eligible candidates who wish to take either of these health care courses should contact Tracie Sumner at 301-628-4253 or at tsumner@nlc.edu.

A limited number of other scholarships are also available through the NLC for students in our degree programs. For more information about these general scholarships, contact Tracie Sumner, as noted above.

Health Care Course Descriptions

LBUA 4120: Health Care that Works: Reform or Band-aid
This class is designed to develop leadership and advocacy skills around health care reform for union staff, leaders and activists. The first five weeks of the course will examine the historical struggle for national health insurance, the role of labor in fighting for guaranteed health care for all Americans, background on the policies and politics that drive the U.S. health care system and examine various reform efforts and the opportunity and challenges faced in 2008. It will focus on current education and organizing efforts at both the state and national levels. Students will be encouraged to become politically active in local health reform efforts in their community, union or state campaign.

LBUA4110: Health Care Bargaining. This class will begin with an overview of the U.S. health care system, emphasizing key features such as hospitals, prescription drugs, testing and medical devices, and cost-drivers such as over-treatment and Rx marketing and research schemes. Students will learn bargaining dynamics by participating in a health care collective bargaining scenario during the week-in-residence. Following that week, each student will complete a research project chosen from a list provided by the instructor, but customized to his his/her own interests, experience, and union setting.

LBUA4100: Health Benefits Future. This course will focus on the history and future of health care as a job benefit. It will review the union role in establishing health care as an employer-provided benefit, and the union advantage in winning good health benefits. It will examine factors related to the declining numbers of workers with employer-provided health care and with union struggles to maintain low cost/high quality health benefits. Students will review the growing debate about whether health care should continue to be tied to employment, and will write a position paper on that question from the perspective of their union.