PDF Labor Day weekend is a good time to ask, “how has health care reform affected American workers?”
Remember President Obama’s line, “if you like your health insurance, you can keep it.”
The members of the United Steelworkers Local 7-669 In Metropolis, IL wanted to keep their benefits. Understandable. They wok in a chemical plant owned by Honewell, Inc. that produces uranium hexafluoride, a highly toxic material regulated by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC).
In front of the Honeywell plant, the union has erected 42 crosses in memory of those members who have died of cancer. This is that same Honeywell company that brought you that little round thermostat that keeps your home comfortable.
Lock out
But Honeywell wanted its workers to give up the comfort of its retiree health care benefits and to turn up the dial on their out of pocket maximum to $8,500. The union liked their benefits and were willing to extend their existing labor agreement.
The union’s unwillingness to yield to those demands prompted Honewell to lock out the 230 members of the Local 7-669.
They have been walking a picket line since June 28, 2010 – over 2 months without work holding out for the benefit of themselves, their family and their community. So far the union has strong community support.
Go here to express your support for the true supermen and women in Metropolis.
Honeywell is no different
The Steelworkers in Metropolis are only one bad example of an overall trend in employer sponsored health coverage.
The most recent version of the Kaiser Employer Benefit Survey underlines the point I have made here before – employers are not interested in providing for the health care coverage of their workers.
While the percentage of workers receiving health care coverage from their employer has remained relatively stable, even if less than impressive, at 59%; employers have reduced the scope of coverage and increased the out of pocket expenses of those workers.
- 30% of employers have reduced coverage
- 23% have increased cost sharing.
The percentage of workers enrolled in plans with a deductible greater than $1,000 increased dramatically from 22% to 27% from 2009.
They want to keep their benefits
The Steelworkers in Metropolis are being asked to increase their out of pocket maximum to $8,500. That is a bit extreme. The Kaiser Family Foundation Survey reveals that only 31% of workers are in plans with out-of-pocket maximums greater than $3,000.
Out of pocket maximums are notoriously confusing to plan participants because they frequently do not count co-payments, or balance billing amounts and other items.
Honeywell maintains that health care premiums doubled in the last ten years. That is consistent with the KFF study that reveals average premiums increased 114% since 2000. But during that same period Steelworkers share of that premium tripled. That is more than the 147% increase of worker premium sharing reported in the KFF survey.
The KFF survey reports that just in the last year when premiums for single and family coverage increased by 3% and 5%, workers’ share of those costs increased by 15.4% and 13.7%.
According to the Washington Post
Since 2005, employees’ premium payments have gone up 47 percent while overall premiums have risen 27 percent. Over the same period, wages have increased 18 percent and the consumer price index, a measure of inflation, has risen 12 percent, the foundation and trust said in a news release.
This Labor Day weekend, there will be a lot of workers wishing for a health reform that would allow them to keep their insurance the way it was.
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