Campaign seeks health-care contributions from big employers

Managers at the Wal-Mart on Post Road in Warwick didn’t really appreciate it when demonstrators clad in mock haz-mat suits recently marched into the place. “They were pretty immediately escorted out of the store,” Ann Rhodes, director of Rhode Islanders for Health Care, a union-backed effort to expand access to health-care, says of the protesters.

The cold reception is more than a little ironic since Fair Share legislation, the impetus for the June 2 protest, would expand health coverage for employees at those companies, like Wal-Mart, who could use better benefits.

The Fair Share health insurance bill, passed in various versions in Maryland, Massachusetts, and Vermont, would require corporations with 1000 or more employees to pay a percentage of their payroll on their employees’ health care or pay into a state health fund to cover more Rhode Islanders. Supporters of Rhode Islanders for Health Care — part of an eight-state effort by the Service Employees International Union — include unions and advocacy groups like Ocean State Action.

Rhodes says 71 percent of statewide voters support Fair Share Health Care, and that after Maryland and Massachusetts received national attention for expanding access to health-care, dozens of other states are considering similar legislation.

During the Warwick protest, “We had a great reception from customers and people driving by,” Rhodes says. With the high cost of health-care posing a concern for many Rhode Islanders, this might be another instance where people are ahead of politicians. But whether this sentiment will be sufficient to bring change — and how it impacts the governor’s race — remains to be seen.

The Carcieri administration has not taken a position on Fair Share bill introduced by state Representative Amy Rice (D-Portsmouth), Rhodes says, although Heath Insurance commissioner Christopher Koller has described the prescribed eight percent contribution from large employers as reasonable. Senator Charles J. Levesque (D-Portsmouth) has introduced similar legislation “to gather information on large companies that employ many people in the state but do not provide affordable health insurance to them.”

Lieutenant Governor Charles Fogarty, the Democratic gubernatorial candidate, has strongly backed Fair Share. During the unveiling of Rice’s legislation in January, he said, “This bill will help achieve the goal of quality and affordable health-care for all Rhode Islanders. It will level the playing field for small- and medium-sized businesses and provide a strong environment for economic development.”

To build support for the legislation, Rhode Islanders for Health Care is mobilizing 20,000 health-care voters across the state, and sponsoring commercials on WPRO-AM and WHJJ-AM. Still, the outcome for Fair Share legislation is far from certain. “I think the General Assembly recognizes there’s a health-care crisis, and they’re working on ways to address this,” says Rhodes, but she is unsure whether the Fair Share bill will emerge from the House Finance and the Senate Health and Human Service committees.

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