Editorial: Bottom-line mentality has its cost

Friday, Oct. 3, 2003 | 4:33 a.m.

WEEKEND EDITION: Oct. 5, 2003

A U.S. Census Bureau report last week documented that the health-care crisis is growing. In 2001, 41.2 million Americans lacked health insurance. In 2002, the Census Bureau reported, the number had grown to 43.6 million -- a 5.8 percent increase. Such a rate of growth in the number of people without health insurance is alarming and becomes even more so when seen, to use a medical term, as a contagion.

People who lack health insurance use public hospitals. The cost of their care, which to them is free or substantially reduced, must be recovered by charging more to paying patients, whose insurance premiums (and taxes) then rise to compensate for the higher charges. And what happens every time premiums rise? More people drop their insurance and end up at public hospitals. It's a harmful cycle.

In reporting on the Census Bureau statistics, The Wall Street Journal pinpointed a major source of the problem -- U.S. employers who are either dropping health insurance entirely as a benefit for their workers or dropping coverage in many areas, such as child vaccinations, flu shots and eye exams. The paper cited Wal-Mart in particular, noting that it makes new hourly hires wait six months for coverage and that in many cases it disallows coverage for pre-existing conditions during the first year of coverage. The retailer has also cut coverage entirely in many treatment and preventive areas and offers as its basic plan one that has a high deductible. The story cited one Las Vegas Wal-Mart worker who could not afford the company's coverage on his $8-an-hour salary and became "overwhelmed" by collection agencies after he had a stroke and ran up a medical bill of $31,000.

More companies should be socially responsible and offer affordable, quality health insurance, which brings a federal tax break and creates a healthier workforce. The path toward fixing the health-care crisis, in our view, begins at the front door of America's businesses.