Hundreds of Workers to Rally in San Francisco Against Skyrocketing Health Insurance Premiums
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MEDIA ADVISORY
Contact: Mike Roth | 916.444.7170 | mike@paschalroth.com
GREEDY HEALTH INSURERS STEAL OUR RAISES
Hundreds of workers to rally in San Francisco against health insurance premiums
that rise faster than inflation and eat away our pay.
- At 3 pm on March 12, hundreds of works will rally against rising health care prices in front of the Ronald M. George State Office Building, 455 Golden Gate Avenue, San Francisco.
- From 4 pm to 6 pm the same day, workers will share stories of their struggles with unaffordable health care at a public hearing of the California Department of Managed Health care in the Milton Marks Auditorium, in basement of State Office Building, 455 Golden Gate Avenue, San Francisco.
Workers and consumer advocates have introduced two bills
to expose what is driving soaring insurance rates and
help employers and their workers negotiate better insurance prices.
SAN FRANCISCO – Hundreds of janitors, teachers, nurses, hotel housekeepers, medical assistants, construction workers and other workers will rally Tuesday, March 12 at 3pm against the rising cost of health care outside a public meeting of California’s largest health care regulatory agency. The workers will then testify at the meeting about the impact of those costs on their lives.
Each year, health insurance costs that rise faster than inflation eat away at the workers’ wages, creating a treadmill effect that takes pay increases out of workers’ pockets and hands them over to insurance companies.
“Greedy health insurance companies are just robbing us blind,” says Joall Lincoln, a housekeeper from Sacramento a member of UNITE HERE Local 49, who suffers from severe chronic back pain that requires him to take a pain relief shot twice a week when it flares up. “The health insurance I get through my job that we negotiated through our union is critical to my survival even as all my other expenses, like car and rent and student loans keep going up,” he said. “But my employer is telling me and my coworkers they can’t afford to provide us with real wage improvements in the next contract because health care costs keep rising. Meanwhile the insurance companies are getting richer and richer.”
Inside the meeting, the Department of Managed Healthcare will hold its third annual hearing regarding insurance prices. The staff presentation will reveal that last year health insurance premiums went up faster than inflation for the third year in a row, not due to increased use of health care by consumers, but to increases in the price of medical care. For the first time this year, health plans and insurers are required to report on the impact prescription drug prices have on increasing premiums. Scores of workers from across the Bay Area who work in different industries and come from various income and racial and ethnic backgrounds will then testify in the public comment period about their struggles with unaffordable health care.
The large group market that covers these workers is the second largest source of coverage in the state after Medi-Cal and encompasses nearly 10 million Californians, including the majority who get coverage through employers. This is the third year that that California has required health insurance companies to make certain financial disclosures on their large group market business after the passage in 2015 of Senate Bill 546, authored by State Senator Mark Leno.
“We now have three years’ worth of data that demands the State of California act to sharply regulate insurance premiums, provider prices, and prescription drug costs. The prices keep climbing faster than general inflation without justification and we’re here today to tell DMHC and all state officials that Californians can no longer afford to wait for relief,” said Chris Rak, President of UNITE HERE Local 49, the hotel, casino and restaurant workers’ union of Sacramento.
While millions of California consumers count on health insurance companies to negotiate reasonable health care prices on their behalf, the soaring rates show they are failing employers, workers, and families. That’s why a coalition of unions and consumer advocates has introduced two bills that could deliver savings to 10 million Californians with employer-based health insurance and increase transparency in health care pricing:
California consumers have saved over $226 million since 2011 by having state regulators review premium hikes, making insurers justify rates for individuals and small businesses. AB 731 (Kalra, D- San Jose) applies the same transparency rules to large employers’ insurance plans that are the subject of Tuesday’s hearing. The legislation will not only expose the cost drivers behind skyrocketing rates, but will also give 10 million workers and their employers the information they need to negotiate better deals on health insurance.
Relatedly, SB 343 (PAN, D-SACRAMENTO) removes exclusions in state law that allows the giant Kaiser Permanente—which covers half of all workers in large employers—to avoid making its prices public.
As millions of people still struggle to afford monthly premiums and put off doctors’ visits and tests because they can’t afford
co-pays and deductibles, a recent report [1] by the Economic Policy Institute shows that if health insurance premiums had remained the same percentage of average earnings since 1999, workers who receive employer-sponsored health insurance would have had an increase in annual pay of 8.6%, or $3,032, for employees with individual coverage, and $9,161 for employees with family coverage.
Data from UNITE HERE shows that if health insurance costs for hotel housekeepers in San Francisco had increased at the same rate as general inflation since 2000, workers would have earned $126,153 more over the last 19 years – or $7,421 more a year. Meanwhile, health insurers are reporting record profits [2] and revenues that exceed those of Big Tech. [3]
“We have no illusions that this will be easy,” said Art Pulaski, Executive Secretary-Treasurer of the California Labor Federation.
“The health care industry has fought tooth and nail against any attempt at transparency. In the last legislative session, the top twenty-four hospitals, insurers and their trade associations reported over $22.3 million in political spending, with prescription drug companies spending more than $16.8 million in lobbying [4] in Sacramento during that time. We fully expect them to do the same this year.”
Links:
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[1] https://www.epi.org/files/pdf/
[2] https://www.axios.com/health-
[3] https://www.axios.com/health-
[4] https://khn.org/news/new-law-
[5] https://aka.ms/ghei36
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