Labor unions rally for health insurance

By Bill Cotterell
DEMOCRAT POLITICAL EDITOR

Demonstrators from labor unions heckled the powerful president of Florida's biggest business organization Monday at a Capitol rally, which was held to support a plan to make employers provide health-care insurance or contribute to a state fund for covering the working poor.

Rep. Susan Bucher, D-West Palm Beach, said making companies provide employee health insurance would not wipe out jobs. Sen. Tony Hill, D-Jacksonville, said organized labor and civil-rights groups will take vengeance at the polls in November if the Republican-run Legislature fails to bring the "fair share health care act" to a vote during the 2006 session.

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"We know that we have responsible corporate entities and then we have some irresponsible ones," Bucher told about 150 sign-waving pickets in the Capitol courtyard. "It's time that we level the business playing field and make this requirement a law."

Bucher and Sen. Walter "Skip" Campbell, D-Fort Lauderdale, sponsored bills (HB 813 and SB 1618) that would require companies with more than 10,000 employees in Florida to devote 9 percent of their payroll costs to health care. If a company had no insurance plan, or spent less than 9 percent of payroll on it, the firm would have to pay the difference into a state fund that would cover costs of Medicaid and other health programs for the poor.

Corporate change
Bucher said there are 23 companies in Florida - including Wal-Mart, Publix, Walgreen's, Burger King, McDonald's and Winn-Dixie - that would be affected by the requirement.

Barney Bishop, president of Associated Industries of Florida, smiled and waved from the back of the crowd when he and some other business lobbyists were pointed out by Jeanette Wynn, president of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees. Demonstrators chanted "corporate welfare has got to go" and shook their picket signs at Bishop.

"It's a policy that sounds fantastic but when you drill down deeper into this issue, what you're going to realize is that most companies in Florida and in America already provide health insurance," said Bishop. He said most Wal-Mart employees, for instance, are older or younger workers who have other coverage - and that the retailer offers some health plans for its employees.

"This is a deal killer," Bishop said. "This is going to hurt Florida's economy. Mandates never improve the economy, but incentives always work."

Linda Chavez-Thompson, executive vice president of the national AFL-CIO, said Florida gives millions in tax breaks and other financial incentives for big businesses establishing stores or plants in the state. She said the state allows some businesses to hold down operating costs by passing their employee health-care costs on to the taxpayers.

Election-year issue
Hill said that even if the Bucher-Campbell bill never gets out of committee, the labor movement will use it as an issue in this election year.

"It's time for us to move in the same direction as Maryland," he said. "Sometimes, by just raising the issue, we can win. In November, we're going to retire some of these folks."