Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, March 2, 1992 TAG: 9203020198
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-9 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: WALTER WISE
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
The cost of providing health care to the uninsured is eventually borne by the taxpayers, by the users of medical facilities and by everyone who purchases health insurance. Twenty to 30 percent of your hospital bill is a result of the costs shifted by the hospital from unrecovered fees to paying customers.
One prevalent myth is that the typical person who has no coverage whatsoever is the indigent, homeless and unemployable person. In fact, nearly 88 percent of the uninsured population are either workers or live in the families of workers.
Nationally, the construction industry has the second-highest incidence of worker non-insurance, with 27.7 percent of its work force uninsured. The primary reason is that the worker could not afford it; the major cause of the growing costs of unreimbursed hospital care are low-wage employment and businesses that do not provide health-care benefits.
The majority of Roanoke Valley construction contractors offer no health benefits to their non-supervisory personnel, or do so only after a year of employment. With the instability of the construction industry, few meet this one-year requirement. Those who do must pay a percentage of their own costs and all the premium for their families.
Low wages prevent many from taking advantage even of this meager benefit. Many employers and contractors prefer to shift their responsibility for providing health benefits to the backs of the taxpayers. While they reap the profits associated with their employees' labor, they irresponsibly contribute nothing to the health and maintenance of that work force.
The public is basically subsidizing the legitimate cost of doing business. In many cases, this subsidy provides enough advantage to enable the irresponsible contractor to become the lowest bidder.
But is this irresponsible contractor truly the lowest bidder if the costs he has shifted to the public are included? Is he to be rewarded for saving a nickel on construction projects while costing society a dollar in subsidized health costs?
Responsible contractors are faced with either going out of business or cutting their own health benefits. They cannot afford to continue to provide for their own employees while subsidizing the health care of their competitors.
Responsible behavior should be rewarded and irresponsibility reprimanded. This can be accomplished by attaching a health-care-benefit prequalification to the way we spend our money.
Corporate users of construction services should be made aware of the indirect costs of using irresponsible contractors, and consider total costs when evaluating bids. Municipal governments should amend procurement procedures to include, under the existing definition of a responsible bidder, a requirement that responsible bidders provide health-care benefits to their employees comparable to those provided the employees of the municipality.
By denying contractors the opportunities to prosper as a result of their irresponsibility, health benefits will be extended to more of the working poor and unreimbursed medical costs will be reduced.
Walter Wise is business manager of Iron Workers Local 697 in Roanoke.
by CNB