What: We invite Co-op members to join us in supporting local healthcare workers (who, ironically, have had their healthcare cut.)
When: Thursday, March 14th at 5PM
Where: Providence St. Peter's Hospital, 525 Lilly Rd. NE, Olympia, WA. 98506
“I have a child with disabilities and with Providence’s healthcare cuts, I will NOT be able to get my young child to the doctors and therapies she needs. How can Providence make my child fail in her growth to become the best person she can be with her disabilities, just to save a buck that they don’t even need?”Sabrina Duncan, Health Unit Coordinator, Providence St. Peter Hospital
Healthcare Workers Lose Access to Healthcare
Members of SEIU 1199NW recently had their healthcare benefits cut - meaning that the people who help keep us healthy will find it harder to access the very services that they provide!
As the union says:
On January 1, 2013, Providence implemented a new healthcare system for its employees that eliminated the comprehensive PPO and replaced it with a risky, expensive high-deductible catastrophic plan. While the PPO was just one of four options under the old system, more than half of SEIU Healthcare 1199NW members at Providence St. Peter relied on that option to get quality, comprehensive, affordable care for their families.
| Plan | 2013 | Deductibles (individual / family) | Out of pocket maximums (individual / family) |
| PPO | Eliminated | $250/$750 | $1,500/$4,500 |
| HSA | Becomes the base plan | $1,500/$3,000 | $3,000/$6,000 |
The median Providence St. Peter member of SEIU Healthcare 1199NW earns $31,000 a year, so the increased family deductible represents nearly 10 percent of income—a huge burden for a working family. Even if an employee qualified for Providence’s HSA contribution—and only about half did last year—the deductible increase is still a big bite out of a family budget.
Providence’s new plans provide just the legal minimum free preventative care and wellness tools required by federal law. But national studies show that of catastrophic plan participants, 26% report not filling a prescription and 25% report not getting a recommended test or treatment because of the cost.[1] These plans in effect deny preventative care because enrollees either don’t understand how the plan works or fear high costs should a serious condition be diagnosed.
Read more at SEIU's website.
