A coalition of faith groups, social service agencies and labor unions have succeeded in putting a piece of health care reform on the Portland City Council agenda.
In chambers packed with 150 members of the Metropolitan Alliance for Common Good, councilors voted unanimously last week to hold hearings on ways to provide health coverage for at least a modest number of low-income Portlanders.
The proposal, carried by Commissioner Sam Adams, could help ensure health coverage for construction workers employed by companies doing city business. Firms not able to provide health coverage could be required to help fund free health clinics, expanding health care for the needy in general.
The idea, similar to ordinances developed in cities nationwide to reduce the number of uninsured, is to make sure that taxpayer money is invested in jobs that offer health care. The alliance says that as many as 1,000 employees on Portland city contracts each year get no health insurance.
“Health care is one of the main things that is a public pressure on our lives. That’s a no-brainer,” says Ed Kaiel, an alliance leader from St. Ignatius Parish. “It’s outrageous.”
Kaiel says he pays $1,200 per month to cover himself, his wife and their college-age son. He knows people with much less income who are crippled by payments like that. He is aware many Portlanders simply cannot pay for any health insurance.
“We are concerned about the pressures on our neighbors,” Kaiel says, acknowledging that the proposed resolution is only a small step in solving the health care crisis.
New federal numbers show that 47 million Americans lack health coverage, a number that keeps growing. The issue is expected to loom large in the 2008 presidential elections.
The alliance has been working on health care reform for years. Efforts to get local health providers to fund neighborhood clinics for the poor have fizzled. The Adams resolution is seen as a good start.
“We want the city to research these ideas and come up with something that works for our community,” Kaiel explains.
Hearings on the plan are not yet scheduled.
Some construction contractor groups are opposed, saying mandates may put them at a disadvantage when bidding for contracts with the city or its urban renewal agency, the Portland Development Commission. Others, who feel undercut by competitors who don’t offer health care, are in favor of the resolution.
“Many contractors are supportive of this effort,” says Cherry Harris, an alliance leader from the Operating Engineers union. “Contractors who provide health care have a difficult time competing for jobs with the city or PDC because they are constantly underbid by contractors who don’t provide health care.”
Alliance leaders called on the commissioners to find ways to use the city’s financial leverage for influencing local health care in the same way support has come for fuel-efficient transportation.
“It is a good thing for our tax money to be spent on fuel efficient vehicles; we support that,” says James Kinniburgh, an alliance leader from Central City Concern, a housing group. “We want the city to apply the same idea to health care.”
The alliance is built of 33 organizations, nine of them Catholic. That includes parishes and a religious community.