Unions Demand Health Insurance for Workers on Hospital Project

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Union workers protested in front of Frisbie while tractors readied the area behind them for construction of a $42 million expansion.

The hospital plans to add about 100,000 square feet – most of it for new private rooms as well as parking and renovations.

The protestors were pointing out that the hospital had to write off some $15 million dollars in losses last year due to unpaid bills by uninsured patients.

The union argues that hospitals themselves contribute to those losses by not mandating that their contractors provide health insurance.

“Anybody who has healthcare and has to purchase it whether you’re in a union or not – if you have healthcare you’re paying the price for uncompensated care.”

That was Joe Howard of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers.

Howard points out that we all pay for uncompensated care through higher premiums, fees and taxes.

He said that hospitals like Frisbie could find contractors in the state that provide coverage.

Howard: “Generally they come in higher because of the cost of healthcare coverage. So we don’t get projects that we should get and we’re the ones paying the bill.”

Al Felgar, Frisbie’s president and CEO, said that he is sympathetic to the issue.

But he doesn’t think the hospital should tell contractors how to do business.

“That’s sort of a policy issue that the hospital has not specifically addressed. But I do know that on this construction job that our construction manager, Berry & Son, have assured us that all of our subcontractors on the project - both union and nonunion - offer health insurance to their employees.”

Berry & Sons, based in Danvers, Massachusetts, declined to comment.

But OFFERING insurance is different from PROVIDING it – and many uninsured workers OPT-OUT because it’s expensive.

90 percent of union construction workers are insured. That compares with 60 percent for their non-union counterparts.

Still, Frisbie’s president Felgar says that forcing construction contractors to provide healthcare coverage could snowball into something bigger.

“Where would I draw the line? Why stop at just contractors? We have all kinds of vendors that supply materials to us. The pharmaceutical companies, the vendors that build things for us that are small individuals, the people that sell us our food products and all of our medical supplies. So it would be hard to say we draw the line at everyone else doesn’t have to provide these benefits.”

And he asks why are hospitals any different from other industries?

“Should Hannaford say to their contractors we want to make sure that everyone makes enough money to buy food? See, I don’t know. It’s very difficult for me to say well why us and not everybody else.”

Frisbie’s president Felgar acknowledges that the project does use some union workers, and he boasts that the hospital pays the lion’s share of healthcare expenses for its own staff.

State Senator Jacalyn Cilley from Barrington met with the protesters and with Felgar after IBEW representatives contacted her.

The newly elected Democrat said that she doesn’t foresee any short-term legislative solution.

She does think that hospitals are central players in the healthcare debate – and should look beyond the bottom line.

“There should be a sensitivity toward making certain that the people that work for them the contractors that work for them the suppliers that they do business with provide the kind of healthcare their employees need in order to access those healthcare services.”

Cilley said that the state is looking at requiring its suppliers to insure their workers. That, she says, would set an example for businesses.

The IBEW’s Howard said the unions plan to protest at Catholic Medical Center next.

For NHPR News, I’m Dianne Finch