Bill would require tracking health care - Bangornews.com Staff

From Bangordailynews.com

AUGUSTA - It's no secret that many Mainers work at low-paying jobs and aren't able to afford health insurance even if their employer offers it. But when that employer is a major multinational corporation with record-breaking profits year after year, is it right for overburdened Maine taxpayers to pick up the health care tab for its employees?

A bill before the Legislature would require the state to compile information each month about employed participants in its Medicaid program, called MaineCare. That information would include the type of work performed by the MaineCare member, the kind of business where he or she is employed, the number of hours worked and the hourly wage earned. The information would be presented in an annual report to the Legislature and used to guide health care policy.

LD 1927, sponsored by Senate President Beth Edmunds, D-Freeport, has been casually referred to in Augusta as "the Wal-Mart bill" because it was modeled after recent legislation in Maryland that specifically targets the Arkansas-based megaretailer. Maryland's so-called "Fair Share" bill requires the state's Wal-Mart stores to spend 8 percent of their payroll on employee health care or to contribute an equivalent amount to the state's Medicaid program. Wal-Mart is considering filing suit.

Last year, more than 1,000 of Wal-Mart's approximately 6,500 Maine employees were receiving some kind of state or federal assistance - MaineCare, food stamps and-or Temporary Assistance for Needy Families - according to information released by the state Department of Health and Human Services and published in the Lewiston Sun Journal last November.

In Maine, Wal-Mart is the second-largest employer, tied with L.L. Bean at about 6,500 employees each. Bath Iron Works is in the No. 3 slot with 5,500 workers, and the Hannaford food stores are in the lead with about 7,500.

According to its Web site, Wal-Mart has 3,800 facilities in the United States and more than 2,400 "units" in Argentina, Brazil, Canada, China, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Germany, Guatemala, Honduras, Japan, Mexico, Nicaragua, Puerto Rico, South Korea and the United Kingdom. The company had profits of $312.4 billion in the fiscal year that ended Jan. 31, 2005.

According to a study cited at Tuesday's hearing, 57 percent of Wal-Mart's 1.3 million U.S. workers, many of whom are disadvantaged single mothers or minority members, have no health care insurance and depend on public programs or charity care.

Edmunds' original bill would have had the MaineCare program track employees of Wal-Mart and other companies with 50 or more MaineCare beneficiaries to determine how much employees of each company are costing the publicly funded MaineCare program. But in introducing her amended legislation at a public hearing Wednesday, Edmunds shifted the focus off Wal-Mart and other big-box retailers and instead said the state should collect the data without creating a "Hall of Shame" list of employers.

Edmunds said the amended bill would simply provide information about the effectiveness of the current employer-based insurance system and help steer policymakers' decisions about health care reform.

"If we are not yet prepared to enact a universal health plan where everyone shares in the benefits and the costs of health care, then we at least need to know where the employer model may not be appropriate anymore," she said.

Union leaders supported the measure, saying they've been trying for years to organize Wal-Mart workers but have been thwarted repeatedly. James Carson, president of the Teamsters in Maine and New England, said the state should be sensitive to differences between companies that simply make huge profits on the backs of Maine workers and taxpayers and those that try harder to be good employers and corporate citizens.

Dr. Robert Weiss, dean emeritus of the Columbia University School of Public Health and now a resident of Orono, noted that only by decreasing spending on MaineCare and other public health programs can the state decrease property taxes or increase spending on schools, current priorities in Augusta.

Representatives of the Maine Medical Association, the Maine State Employees Association, the Maine Council of Churches, the Maine Fair Trade Campaign and Maine Consumers for Affordable Health Care also testified in support.

Opposition to the measure was relatively muted. No one from Wal-Mart testified. James McGregor of the Maine Merchants Association criticized the bill as a prelude to requiring all employers to provide insurance to their workers, and reminded the committee that employers of all sizes are affected by the spiraling costs of health insurance.

"Business is not in a position to subsidize [public] programs after the government runs out of money," he said.

Peter Gore of the Maine State Chamber of Commerce objected to the effort to categorize employers as "good" or "bad" based on "the presence of someone on MaineCare on your payroll." Most employers in Maine struggle to treat their employees well, he said, both because it's good for business and because they feel a sense of moral obligation.

Hannaford's Steve Culver testified that many companies offer a variety of socially valuable employee programs, citing Hannaford's proactive policy of hiring mentally and physically disabled workers as an example.

Committee members displayed their own agendas as well. Rep. Kevin Glynn, R-South Portland, pressed several of those testifying both for and against the measure to comment on the state's DirigoChoice insurance plan, of which he is an outspoken critic. At the other end of the committee bench, Rep. Richard Burns, D-Berwick, took several opportunities to enlarge on the benefits of a single-payer plan. Senate chair Art Mayo, D-Bath, kept the digressions to a minimum.

After the hearing adjourned, co-chair Rep. Hannah Pingree, D-North Haven, emphasized that the bill as amended would simply gather data without attaching it to any specific employers. Committee changes that might ask employers to disclose employee benefit policies or other information are bound to create problems, she said. "But it's important to understand how this information affects the availability and cost of health care in Maine," she said.

Pingree added that the state should look to its own policies. For example, some health care workers whose wages are set by the MaineCare program also are unable to afford health insurance and must depend on the MaineCare program, she said.

The legislative committee's work session on LD 1927 is scheduled for 10 a.m. Wednesday, March 8, in the Health and Human Services Committee Room of the State Office Building.