Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About Northwest labor press. (Portland , Ore.) 1987-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 7, 2012)
‘HEALTH INSURANCE ATE MY PENSION’ What some unions are doing about out-of-control health care costs By DON McINTOSH Associate Editor After decades of rising health costs, American workers are used to rising health insurance premiums and wors- ening coverage, and watching as raises are gobbled up by health care cost in- creases. And the question of who will pay for the increases — workers or em- ployers — is the number one source of conflict in union contract bargaining. At Boeing, it was a factor in the last two strikes. At TriMet, new hires will have 401(k)s instead of a traditional pension because of rising health costs: In July, an arbitrator said he imposed the employer’s contract proposal (which included the pension change) because the union’s contract proposal would have continued the same health benefits and thus would have been too costly. Health insurance premiums have doubled in a decade, according to a na- tionwide annual employer survey — from $7,061 for employer-sponsored family coverage in 2001 to $15,073 in 2011. And employee-only coverage now averages $5,429 a year. Under President Obama’s Affordable Health Care Act, premiums will be disclosed on every worker’s W-2 form, but they’re expected to continue to rise. America spent 17.9 percent of its Gross Domestic Product on health care in 2010 — $2.6 trillion. That’s $8,402 per person per year, and double what Canada spends. To combat metastasizing cost in- creases, unions and employers around the country are looking at ways to im- prove health and/or eliminate costly ad- ministration. In New York City, a health trust jointly run by a hotel employers associ- ation and the New York Hotel Trades Council is saving a bundle by employ- ing doctors directly, and cutting out the insurance middleman. The trust oper- ates four health centers and employs 200 physicians, 50 dentists, 24 pharma- cists and 700 other medical support staff to serve hotel workers and their de- pendents — 86,000 people in all. The $315 million annual cost is completely funded through contributions from ap- proximately 300 participating hotel em- ployers at a collectively bargained con- tribution rate of 22.5 percent of gross wages. And in the most recent master contract, the employer group commit- ted to replacing an aging Brooklyn health center with a new 100,000 square foot state-of-the-art health center, which Dr. Robert H. Greenspan, the health network CEO, estimates will cost around $60 million. That may sound like a lot of money, but the cost to the trust for health care works out to be $358.79 a month for a single member and $986.52 for a family. And that’s about a third the cost of an equivalent HMO, Greenspan said in an e-mail. The strategy of cutting out insurance middlemen may be spreading: Service Employees International Union (SEIU), which long had a clinic for its janitor members in Chicago, recently opened one for janitors in Houston. And a group called the Freelancers Union is opening a clinic in Brooklyn, New York, this winter for its members. A more common approach is to try to encourage employees to become healthier — quitting smoking or losing weight. Pepsi charges employees $50 a month if they smoke or have obesity-re- lated medical problems — if they refuse to attend smoking cessation or weight loss classes — though Teamsters in up- state New York are fighting aspects of (Turn to Page 9) (International Standard Serial Number 0894-444X) Established in 1900 at Portland, Oregon as a voice of the labor movement. 4275 NE Halsey St., P.O. Box 13150, Portland, Ore. 97213 Telephone: (503) 288-3311 Editor: Michael Gutwig Staff: Don McIntosh, Cheri Rice Published on a semi-monthly basis on the first and third Fridays of each month by the Oregon Labor Press Publishing Co. Inc., a non- profit corporation owned by 20 unions and councils including the Oregon AFL-CIO. Serving more than 120 union organizations in Ore- gon and SW Washington. Subscriptions $13.75 per year for union members. Group rates available to trade union organizations. PERIODICALS POSTAGE PAID AT PORTLAND, OREGON. CHANGE OF ADDRESS NOTICE: Three weeks are required for a change of address. When ordering a change, please give your old and new addresses and the name and number of your local union. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS, P.O. BOX 13150, PORTLAND, OR 97213-0150 SEPTEMBER 7, 2012 NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS PAGE 5
