A bill that would look at whether taxpayers are subsidizing large employers in the state by paying for their employees to be on Medicaid – dubbed the Wal-Mart bill – is expected to get a favorable committee review despite opposition from business groups.
“It’s greased,” said Sen. Richard Rosen, R-Hancock County, of the Health and Human Services Committee, which was to vote on a recommendation Wednesday afternoon. Rosen is concerned about the bill because it never says how the state would use the information.
Committee Chairman Hannah Pingree, D-North Haven, said she’d be “surprised” if some version of the bill didn’t pass her committee, saying the most controversial aspect – actually identifying the names of companies with Medicaid employees on their payroll – had been taken out.
Senate President Beth Edmonds, the sponsor of the bill officially titled an Act to Prevent State Taxpayers from Subsidizing Large Employers, offered the amendment as an apparent olive branch to business. Edmonds says she now only wants the numbers of employees on Medicaid but without the company names.
It didn’t do the trick at a public hearing last week.
Representatives of the Maine State Chamber of Commerce, Maine Merchants Association and National Federation of Independent Businesses all stood to oppose the bill, saying it was the first step in mandating that employers provide health insurance.
They were far outnumbered by those from labor unions, churches and advocacy groups, who testified in favor of the proposal. The governor’s office also is backing the bill.
The bill would require the Department of Health and Human Services to report how many employees – categorized by the type of work they do – are on Medicaid, or MaineCare as it is called in this state. The original bill would have required the department to collect and disclose the names of employers of applicants for MaineCare, and of persons requesting uncompensated care in a hospital.
The DHHS last year estimated 54,000 Maine workers were on MaineCare in 2005, according to testimony provided by the governor’s Office of Health Policy and Finance.
“Those employers who rely on publicly financed health insurance have an unfair advantage in their business costs because the cost of health care for their employees is being shifted to the public. That isn’t fair to the taxpayers and it isn’t fair to other businesses,” Edmonds said.
While Edmonds said others wanted stronger legislation, including requiring large employers to pay if they don’t provide insurance, “I am not sure that we can impose such a requirement on Maine employers at this point. I have opted to ask for information…but I think the people who might want a stronger bill and I have the same goals in mind.”
Many see the bill as a prelude to play-or-pay legislation passed in Maryland that requires employers with 10,000 or more workers in the state to spend at least 8 percent of their payroll on health insurance. If an employer doesn’t spend that much, they are required to pay the difference into the state’s Medicaid fund.
While Maryland’s law, as currently written, would only affect Wal-Mart in that state, other states are considering similar legislation aimed at more employers.
Jacob Gerritsen, a doctor from Camden and president of the Maine Medical Association, said the “MMA believes that health care reform will not be successful without a requirement that everyone has some basic level of health insurance coverage,” either through a mandate on individuals or employers.
“I am concerned that Maine has an ever-increasing number of large, successful, out-of-state headquartered businesses – the so-called big box stores – that could and should be providing health care coverage for their workers,” he said.
James Carson of South Portland, representing the Teamsters Union, said big corporations were “eating our lunch,” and allowing them to use Medicaid as a company insurance plan was giving them an unfair advantage on price.
If an item costs $21 in one store and $19 at Wal-Mart, “the state is giving them that $2 to get it down to $19,” he said.
Carson said there is a national effort to organize Wal-Mart and make health care part of the negotiated package, but the company, so far, has kept the union out.
Representatives of the business community said the bill was just the first step to mandating that employers pay for health insurance without looking at the underlying costs in the health care system. They also said the problem in a state like Maine wasn’t just big-box stores, but the majority of small businesses that employ most of the state’s workers.
“Just whipping Wal-Mart and a couple of the big guys into shape isn’t going to solve the problem,” said Jim McGregor of the Maine Merchants Association.
Peter Gore of the Maine State Chamber of Commerce said the bill seeks to make villains out of companies that can’t afford to provide insurance to their workers.
“Employers like employees are struggling to meet the rising cost of health care,” Gore said, but without looking at the underlying reasons why a company doesn’t provide the benefit, “this bill makes it their fault and that’s not right.”
Steve Culver of Hannaford supermarkets said simply looking at whether a company has subsidized workers as employees could paint a misleading picture since both senior citizens and the disabled get government help for their health care.
“Some businesses that you perceive to be as evil companies,” Culver said, may be doing the right thing.
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