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Thousands of Casino Workers Face Insurance Loss

Word of the endangered coverage was sent Dec. 1 to 9,700 members of Culinary Local 226 who failed to work enough hours in September and October to qualify for health coverage during the first two months of next year.

Culinary organizers estimate that 2.4 people are covered by each policy.

The workers averaged less than 30 hours weekly during the two-month period, failing to qualify for coverage because of the dramatic decline in travel that followed the Sept. 11 terror attacks.

"If it's this bad for our workers it's got to be really severe throughout the city," said Bobbette Bond, a coordinator of the Culinary Workers Health Fund.

An estimated 12,000 Las Vegas-area casino industry workers have been laid off since mid-September with an additional 2,000 people losing jobs in other fields, according to the state Department of Employment, Training and Rehabilitation. Thousands more have watched as their shifts have been cut to make up for lost revenues.

MGM Mirage eliminated an estimated 6,000 jobs. Park Place Entertainment cut 2,100 positions, and Mandalay Resort Group nearly 4,500, with Harrah's Entertainment and others slashing jobs. Some have since returned to part-time work.

An estimated two-thirds of the newly unemployed are union members. The rest are nonunion and dependent upon their employers to provide health coverage, which has or is close to expiring.

Culinary members have the option of spending $2.02 for every hour they are shy of the 224 hours needed to qualify for January and February health coverage, potentially reducing the total number of people who could lose health insurance.

"If people are just a few hours short they're fine," said Bond, "but no, they can't afford $200 or $300."

The number of affected people could be further reduced by union members whose spouses continue to work and have their own health coverage.

Non-union members can extend their coverage through COBRA, a federal plan that routinely requires individual monthly payments of $200 to $400.

The coverage loss would strike as local health-care providers prepare for an influx of cold and flu sufferers.

Since early September, the University Medical Center and its sister facilities have treated 40 patients a month who lacked health coverage, but that figure is expected to soon jump to an unknown level.

"In the next month or two we're expecting to see an increase of these people because their insurance has run out," said UMC spokesman Rick Plummer. "We've never been through anything like this."

UMC's Plummer said he's heard estimates that 10,000 to 15,000 locals are about to lose coverage - a figure that could not be corroborated by spokeswomen for the Clark County Health District or Clark County government.

"We're not the agency to handle this one," said Clark County Health District spokeswoman Jennifer Sizemore, echoing the comments of other government officials.

Representatives of several state agencies - including the Department of Human Resources, and the Department of Employment, Training and Rehabilitation - said they have no grasp of the problem's scope.

"There's no one at the state level who knows whether or not (people) have health insurance and are about to lose that," said Mike Willden, director of the Nevada Department of Human Resources.

An estimated 40 million Americans, or one of every seven, currently lack health insurance, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation, a Menlo, Calif.-based, think tank that studies health-care issues.

For every 1 percent jump in the nation's unemployment rate the number of uninsured increases by 860,000 people throughout the country, noted Larry Levitt, the foundation's vice president.

Nevada's jobless rate jumped 1.5 percentage points in October to 6.3 percent, its highest level in six years. The rate for the Las Vegas area was 6.7 percent.

"It puts that much more pressure on providers who are providing uncompensated care and ultimately the governments must step in through public hospitals or community clinics," Levitt said of lost health coverage. "When the insurance goes away it doesn't mean the need goes away."

Medical providers have long argued that it is cheaper to treat a patient in the early throes of an illness than someone who lacks insurance and waits to seek help in an emergency room. But area hospitals could soon face an increase in that dynamic, industry observers agreed.

"These things were fueled by the terrorist attacks ... and now what you have is a serious economic downturn, rapidly escalating premiums, growing numbers of uninsured and significant losses of health-care coverage by American families," said Peggy Rhoades, executive director of the National Coalition on Health Care.

Former Presidents Bush, Ford and Carter serve as honorary co-chairmen of the private, non-profit group based in Washington, D.C.

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