Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce President Kenneth Adams submitted a letter to the editor of The New York Sun about the New York City Council's "Health Care Security Act" bill requiring employers in specific industries to provide health care coverage to their employees.  The letter appeared in the October 14, 2005 issue:

Regardless of how one views the legislation, lost in the debate over the City Council’s recent “Health Care Security Act” is the fact that most uninsured New Yorkers don’t work in large supermarkets.  The Brooklyn economy, for example, produces about 460,000 jobs, 90% of which are in small businesses with fewer than 20 people on the payroll.  These businesses represent the bread and butter of the outer boroughs’ economies.  But they cannot be counted on to pay for traditional employer-sponsored heath insurance.  It simply has become much too expensive.  What’s more, most low-wage workers, when asked if they want the boss to pay for costly health insurance, say no thanks, they would rather get a raise.  No surprise – given the high cost of living in New York City and the accessibility and quality of our public health care system where the uninsured seek care. 

A practical approach to this problem would be to create a low-cost health insurance plan for workers in small businesses in New York City – one whose costs are shared in a reasonable way by employer, employee and taxpayers.  That’s the story of Brooklyn HealthWorks.  The Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce partnered with GHI and engaged the state’s Healthy NY program and the city’s HealthPass to create a unique, “public-private” insurance plan.  Yes, we use some taxpayers’ money (government grants) to subsidize the HealthWorks premiums in a modest way.  But that brings the price down to a level at which small business owners and their workers will seriously consider buying health insurance.  A basic but attractive benefits package helps close the deal.  The insured worker gets good health care coverage through an employer-sponsored GHI plan that is made affordable by a unique alignment of helpful partners. 

Brooklyn HealthWorks can easily be expanded city-wide to an extent determined by the amount of government funds dedicated to the premium subsidies.  (The current cost of the subsidy is under $400 per person per year.)  This expansion would not be as expensive as it sounds, since generally it is more cost-effective for people to be insured (and receive preventive care) than for them to show up on the doorstep of the public hospital system.  Providing health care for more working New Yorkers by getting them insurance this way should create savings that offset the cost to government of the premium subsidies.  And if taxpayers are going to chip in no matter what to make sure everyone gets proper health care, why not make that contribution upstream and provide the uninsured with insurance, education and consumer choice, rather than just handing them a ticket to an over-priced, overcrowded emergency room.

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