Improving Health Care and Joining Unions

Rhode Island AFL-CIO Patrick Crowley (a good friend of mine, I will mention for disclosure’s sake) and Karen Hazard write that the best way to improve healthcare outcomes given the system we have is for more workers to join unions.

There are just over 500,000 Rhode Island based non-farm jobs in the state according to the Rhode Island Department of Labor and Training. About 80,000 of these jobs are protected by collective bargaining agreements. We know from sources like the U.S. Department of Treasury that not only do unions raise the wages of their members by 10 to 15%compared to similar non-union jobs, but that all workers in markets with a heavy union presence see economic improvements. On top of that, 96% of union members have employer- provided health insurance compared to just 69% of non-union workers. 

Now imagine there were 10,000 more union members in Rhode Island by the end of 2025. If the average wage paid to a Rhode Island worker averages $65,000 per year, and these workers, through collective bargaining, could increase their wages by 10%, that would mean the individual worker would see a salary increase of $6,500. In a state with just over 1 million people, that means an additional $65 million in economic activity, leading to increased tax revenues from income and sales taxes. It would also mean these 10,000 workers, and their dependents, would be much more likely to have commercial health insurance. This could equate to as many as 25,000 fewer people on Medicare, meaning our hospitals would receive adequate payments for the services they provide, instead of relying on low reimbursement rates from public health insurance plans.

Please don’t misunderstand our point of view. As trade unionists, we believe that in a perfect world, there would be some form of national health care system where every American’s health care would be provided for without concern for the cost to the patient and their family. But we don’t live in a perfect world, and Rhode Island is confronting a crisis today.

According to Rhode Island General Laws § 28-7-2, “…it is declared to be the public policy of the state to encourage the practice and procedure of collective bargaining.” This section of law refers not only to the public sector workers, but to those in the private sector as well. It is why the AFL-CIO refers to Rhode Island as a “labor state” and why, we think, we can use the power of organized labor to help address Rhode Island’s health care crisis. That is why we are calling on the collective leadership of the state — elected officials, business, community, and other civic leaders — to join with us during the next few months as the General Assembly debates next year’s state budget and encourage as many Rhode Islanders as possible to join with their coworkers and negotiate for better wages and benefits. The entire state of Rhode Island would be better off if more of our proudly working-class state were part of organized labor.

This is of course true of the entire nation. I also thought this statistic was remarkable, probably just because I am not a health care expert and don’t pay that much attention to the issue:

In our small state of just over 1 million people, over 50% of us are insured through either Medicare or Medicaid. In our hospitals, over 70% of patients are covered by public health care plans. That leaves only 25% of hospital patients covered by commercial insurance, well below our neighboring states of Massachusetts (30%) and Connecticut (29%).

That’s a lot of people! I am sure that Trump and the Republicans gutting social programs will really Make Americans Healthy Again!