United Power featured in Crain's

United Power Leader Greg Pierce had an article featured in Crain's. http://chicagobusiness.com
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4/23/07

By Gregory F. Augustine Pierce
Now is the time for universal health coverage in Illinois

Let's get a few things out of the way:

• It would be better for those of us who run businesses and provide workers with health insurance if all employers did so.

• The last thing business owners like me want to see is another tax.

• We are now hearing about a tax to fund health care precisely because large numbers of employers do not provide health insurance and offload costs onto responsible businesses, non-profit organizations, health care providers and the government.

Gov. Rod Blagojevich supports a plan that will allow employers in Illinois access to reasonably priced health coverage for all employees. We should back him on this. I do. And many business owners I know do as well. He's responding to a crisis created by some employers who have not met their responsibility to their workers or the state. They have exposed all businesses to additional taxes in the process.

How it will be paid for is the problem. As a crusty Louisiana senator used to say, "Don't tax you. Don't tax me. Tax that feller under the tree." The governor's plan should not tax those of us who have been providing health insurance. Or, if he wants to argue for a broad tax, it should be nominal for responsible employers.

The opposite should be true for business owners who, according to the U.S. Census Bureau's Current Population Survey, have dropped more than 340,000 employees from health plans in Illinois in recent years. United Power for Action and Justice, a church-based citizens' organization that has been pushing for health care reform for many years, believes all employers should be mandated to provide health insurance for employees and the state should ensure such insurance is affordable and available. Employers who refuse should pay a steep fee, assessment or tax to have the state do it for them.

A well-targeted program will keep responsible business people on the right side of this issue. It will isolate freeloaders who say they want to solve the current health care crisis but don't want to help pay for it.

If we can't accomplish this in the current legislative session, then everyone will lose. Having access to affordable health insurance will help all employers attract and keep good employees. And for small businesses like mine, being part of a large insurance pool will allow me to give my employees better health coverage and ensure that I will continue to be able to do so at a reasonable price.

The time is now for universal health care coverage in Illinois. To accomplish that, we are going to have to pay for it, but it should be done on a fair and equitable basis.