Failure to Implement Universal Health Coverage Cuts Into Massachusetts’ Employers’ Profits, May Cost Jobs

Failure to implement universal health coverage in Massachusetts is "cutting into the profits of the state's employers" and causing them to cut jobs, according to Central Massachusetts AFL-CIO President Joseph Carlson, the Worcester Telegram & Gazette reports. Speaking at a health care forum at the Worcester Senior Center last week, Carlson said that employers are facing increasing insurance costs to offset the expense of treating the uninsured, many of whom tend to use hospital emergency rooms for primary care. Carlson added that when insurance costs start to reduce corporate profits, many employers react by cutting jobs. At the meeting, Marcia Hams of Boston, Mass.-based Health Care for All proposed that Massachusetts finance universal health care coverage through an additional 60-cent tax on cigarettes. A similar 25-cent tax was levied to help provide coverage for most of the state's uninsured children (Shaw, Worcester Telegram & Gazette, 2/23).