Uninsured workers cost county millions

By Emily Richmond

Wednesday, July 18, 2001 | 10:53 a.m.

Clark County taxpayers pay twice when the county hires contractors who don't provide health care insurance for people who work on public projects, a spokesman for the state carpenter's union told the public hospital's board Tuesday.

The comments came as the board reviewed a study showing University Medical Center had a cost of $11.4 million last year on caring for uninsured workers, an increase of 12.7 percent since 1997. The board voted to set up a task force to study the problem.

"You get the bill for the construction work, and then you get billed a second time when those workers end up at UMC," said Daniel O'Shea, spokesman for the Nevada Carpenter's Union.

O'Shea, a Chicago native, urged the board to follow his hometown's lead and hire only contractors that provide health insurance for laborers. County Commissioner Erin Kenny, who chairs the UMC board, asked the county staff to investigate the legality of such a requirement.

"When we bring corporations into the community that don't offer their workers health benefits, we, the taxpayers, end up subsidizing the profits of those corporations," Kenny said. "Do we support companies that don't offer benefits, or do we spend less money on UMC and more on parks and recreation?'

The board instructed William Hale, chief executive of UMC, to meet with the Nevada Interfaith Council for Worker Justice and develop the task force.

"We cannot allow employers to take the low road of shifting the responsibility for health care for their workers to the tax-paying public," said the Rev. Bonnie Polley, one of the founders of the interfaith advocacy group.

The construction industry, which contributes 9.2 percent of the county's work force, was responsible for 19.1 percent of the uncompensated care at UMC last year, according to the report by Jeffrey Waddoups, associate professor of economics at UNLV. That's an improvement over 1997, when construction led all other industries with 24.8 percent of the unpaid bills.

Steven Hill, spokesman for the Association of Builders and Contractors of Southern Nevada, said the county should take a closer look at the problem of uninsured workers in all industries before targeting contractors who bid on public works projects.

Many construction workers in the area have steady employment and health insurance through their employers, Hill said. But there's also an element of the industry that's more transient, moving from job site to job site and from state to state, Hill said.

"Offering health care doesn't really fit well with that type of employment," Hill said.

Waddoups conducted the study at the request of the County Commission, which serves as UMC's trustees. It's a follow-up to a similar study, which measured 1997 figures, done by Waddoups in 1999.

Workers in Clark County were responsible for $28 million of the unpaid bills last year, leaving the hospital with $11.4 million in actual losses.

That's an increase of 17 percent over the $24 million in uncompensated care in 1997, when UMC posted losses of $10 million.

UMC's total bill for uncompensated care, including uninsured workers, the unemployed and visitors from outside the county who failed to pay, was $89 million in 2000. That's an increase of 26 percent since 1997, according to the report.

The hospital gets about $14 million annually in state and federal funding to provide for indigent care. Costs associated with care provided to patients who are employed but can't pay are considered losses. UMC's net costs for 2000 were $36.5 million, up 2 percent from 1997.

UMC also spent $25 million last year treating unemployed people who failed to pay their bills. That was a jump of nearly 27 percent over 1997.

Some employers avoid providing health-care benefits by hiring more part-time employees who don't log enough hours to qualify for the plan, Waddoups said. In some cases employees can't afford to buy into their company's health-care plan because the premiums are too costly, Waddoups said. Taxpayers then subsidize the employees' health care through the public hospital, he said.

The wholesale and retail trade accounted for 22.1 percent of the unpaid bills. It represents 21.4 percent of the county's work force.

For example, dozens of current and former employees of Wal-Mart showed up at Tuesday's board meeting to criticize the retail giant for failing to provide adequate health insurance for its employees. Linda Gruen, who works at the Sam's Club at Spring Mountain Road and Rainbow Boulevard, said part-time employees are only eligible for health care after two years and even full-time employees face high premiums.

A spokesman for Wal-Mart couldn't be reached for comment.

The hotel, gaming and recreation industries provide 25.6 percent of the county's jobs, but its employees were the source of just 18.9 percent of the uncompensated care, Waddoups said.

"In this case, it's a good thing to be under-represented," he said.