The Wake

The clerical workers on campus are not striking alone.

Across the country, 98,000 workers are involved in labor disputes over health coverage, according to Ken Jacobs at the University of California Los Angeles’ Institute for Labor and Employment.

According to a report issued by the nonpartisan Washington-based Center for Studying Health System Change, health insurance premiums have gone up more than 10% each of the past three years. This fact, combined with the cyclical economic downturn, has caused employers to shift costs aggressively to employees.

Ron Pollack, executive director of Families USA, said that he is concerned the shift in the burden of health costs onto the backs of employees, combined with layoffs and cuts to programs like Medicaid, will cause many Americans to join the ranks of the uninsured.

This year, the University of Minnesota faced a 15% cut to its base budget, the largest budget cut in campus history, and possibly the most dollars ever to be taken from a university campus anywhere, campus officials said.

In an effort to balance this shortfall, the University proposed to raise employees’ annual health premiums by more than $1,900 for some family coverage plans.

“The health care plan is the same for all employees,” said University President Robert Bruininks.

But the medical plan includes four options, depending on how much workers pay in premiums. Flexibility of service varies across the pay scale, according to a U Plan online document.

According to an October report to the Regents, the health-care plan that members of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 3800 rejected would require single coverage employees to pay 10 percent of their premiums when they previously paid nothing. Also, their share of prescription drug costs and doctor visits would increase.

Most health plans are more profitable than they were two years ago, mainly because premiums are going up faster than actual costs of service, according to the Center for Studying Health System Change. The plans are also leaner because they do not offer Medicare or Medicaid.

This development comes after insurance costs increased in the early 1990s, then leveled off because more people used health management organizations. “As HMOs developed a bad image and patients switched to preferred provider organizations, the cost of the system went up again,” said Alwyn Cassil, senior manager of public affairs for the center.

Paycheck deduction has gone up about $25 a month on average for family coverage this past year, said Dr. Donald Young, president of the Health Insurance Association of America. But he said he is not concerned.

“Employer-sponsored health insurance remains the bedrock of America’s health care financing system, and one of the best deals workers have today,” Young said. “Despite the fact that their paycheck deduction has gone up a little this past year, employees pay a smaller share of their health insurance premium than they did a decade ago, and their out-of-pocket spending for health care has reached an historic low.”

“Rather than succumb to a doom and gloom scenario, we must give the private market the freedom to innovate and the flexibility to meet the needs and preferences of the American consumer,” Young said.

“Health costs are going up at a time when an increasing number of Americans need health care services,” said Rick Pollack, executive vice president for the American Hospital Association.

“At the same time, specialty providers are cherry picking patients with less complex medical issues, leaving community hospitals to care for the sickest of the sick, a trend that threatens hospitals’ ability to meet the basic health needs of their community.”