Too Few Choices

"This is not the medical system that sane and compassionate people would set out to design."

Houston Chronicle Editorial
October 13, 2004

Left without other choices for health care, uninsured workers -- including virtually all of Houston's janitors -- are forced to go to emergency rooms for care. In fact, a study by Save Our ERs -- a coalition of Harris County emergency room doctors -- shows that one-quarter of all emergency room visits are by uninsured individuals seeking routine care. These visits -- though necessary for these families because other options simply don't exist -- are an expensive and inefficient way to deliver medical care, and are contributing to the overcrowding of Houston's emergency rooms. In fact, almost one-third of the time Houston's emergency rooms are so crowded that they have to turn away ambulances.

Responsible employers who do provide health insurance -- regardless of what business they're in -- subsidize those employers who rely on public hospitals and clinics to pick up the burden. This contributes to the rising cost of health insurance premiums that companies must pay. In fact, responsible employers pay three times:

• First, they pay the cost of providing health insurance to their employees. 
• Second, they pay higher taxes to support public hospitals and clinics whose patient rolls swell beyond capacity because so few private employers provide adequate health care.
• Third, they pay higher premiums to make up for the uncompensated care and charity care that private health systems provide. In 2003, over $900 million in uncompensated care was provided by private hospitals. To make up those costs, hospitals sometimes have to charge higher rates to their paying customers -- which translates into higher insurance premiums for employee and employer alike.