OVERRIDE VICTORIES

The Massachusetts legislature did override two important vetoes:

• Section 304, which requires the state to report on employers with 50 or more workers using public insurance programs such as MassHealth or the Uncompensated Care Pool.
• Line Item 9110-1460, which allocates $5 million to assist low-income Prescription Advantage enrollees with co- payment expenses.

Steve Bailey a Boston Globe columnist highlighted the importance of the first of these overrides in an August 4th column:

With no fanfare and over the veto of Governor Mitt Romney, the Massachusetts Legislature last month became the first in the nation to require the Commonwealth to compile an annual list of which companies' employees and their dependents use state health benefits the most, and what it costs taxpayers. The requirement, included in the state budget, applies to employers with more than 50 workers.

American medicine is the best in the world, but paying for it is a constant game of pass the buck. Increasingly, the private sector is passing the buck to the public sector. In 2001, about 67 percent of Americans under age 65 got their healthcare coverage through their employer, according to the Center for Studying Health Care System Change. By 2003, that number had fallen dramatically to 63 percent. Meanwhile, those under 65 getting government coverage increased to 12 percent from 9 percent. People still went to the doctor; the difference was who paid….

In Georgia, an internal audit of who was using the state's healthcare program for kids was revealing, if embarrassing for some brand-name companies. WalMart, Georgia's largest employer, had about one child in the state program for every four employees, by far the highest ratio of children covered by the state. Others on the list included McDonald's and Home Depot.

When firms don't offer workers health insurance, or pay workers too little to afford the premiums, somebody else must pay. WalMart has become Exhibit A: In California alone, WalMart workers seek $86 million a year in state aid because of inadequate wages and benefits, according to a study by the University of California at Berkeley Labor Center. "In effect, WalMart is shifting part of its labor costs onto the public," the researchers said.

… 41 percent of those who are employed and uninsured in Massachusetts work at large firms, a state study found. It is not just about small companies not insuring their workers.

Bottom line: If (employees) can't pay, and…employer(s) won't, that leaves the rest of us. And if we're going to pick up the tab, we have every right to know which employers are freeloading -- and just what they are costing us.

-Adapted from Health Care for All, MassHealth Defense Group Update, 8/4/04 and The Boston Globe Downtown Column “Corporate freeloaders” By Steve Bailey, 8/6/04

08/2004