Health Care Offer to Strikers Looks Good to at Least One Man

I got a call the other day from a man named Jim Chavez, who lives in Chino and wanted to tell me why he’s crossing the supermarket picket lines.

Chavez answered the door with his wife, Sylvia, and led me to his office -- a converted garage.

“Look at this,� the self-employed headhunter said, grabbing a health insurance statement off a shelf.

His health care premiums have gone up every year for four straight years. He now pays $373 a month for his family of five, but coverage doesn’t kick in until he’s shelled out $4,800 a year in deductibles. And he can’t understand why striking supermarket employees, who haven’t paid a nickel for health care, are griping about finally having to chip in.

“I’d walk through a lava pit for the deal they’ve got,� said Chavez, who, like a lot of us, can’t make heads or tails of the nation’s haphazard health care system, with all its maddening inequities and inefficiencies.

Chavez said he feels the sting of disapproval when he crosses picket lines past the clerks he knows and respects. But he does so on principle, and wonders why everyone else trembles at the thought.

“We had this angry voter rebellion,� said Chavez, 47. And although Arnold Schwarzenegger didn’t offer much in the way of specifics, “He said he was pro-business. So where are all these angry people who voted for a more friendly business environment? They’re not in the supermarket supporting these businesses. How do I know? Because I still go, and nobody’s there. And I resent being intimidated when I walk through the door.�

Our first stop was the Ralphs at the corner of Riverside and Mountain, a store Chavez has been patronizing since 1989.

Nobody clubbed us going in. In fact, all we got were indifferent glances from two or three pickets.

Inside the store, it looked as if they’d just had a fire drill. Aisles were eerily empty, and the employee-to-shopper ratio was about 4-to-1.

“I think they’ve got a great deal,� Jennine Halink, 75, said of the strikers as she lifted a 10-pound bag of russet potatoes (99 cents) into her basket. Halink said her Medicare and an HMO still leave her loaded with medical bills.

By the way, bargains like the 99-cent russets abound at Ralphs. A beef chuck roast with some slightly funky coloring has been discounted from $9.21 to $4.60. And there’s no waiting for checkout.

We ran into far more pickets at the Albertsons at Central and Philadelphia, but still made it into the nearly vacant store unharmed. Back in the meat department, a temporary employee named Steve was loading drumsticks into the display case for $19.18 an hour, the going rate for anyone who crosses the picket line.

Steve said he’s a full-time butcher at an independent store that offers no health insurance, and if he could get a job at Albertsons that offered any plan at all, “I’d take it in a heartbeat.�

Exactly, said Chavez.

Don’t get him wrong, he told me. If Chavez worked at Ralphs or Albertsons, he’d be fighting for the best possible deal, too. But as premiums soar, checkers and baggers better wake up to reality, Chavez said, and start forking over good dough for lousy coverage, as he has to.

Outside Albertsons, Chavez told a picket named Rachel he didn’t appreciate being stared down for going to a store he’s supported for years.

“That’s the Teamsters,� said Rachel, who supervises Albertsons liquor department. “We work here, and we’re very friendly to people because they’re our regular customers and we know them.�

“I don’t understand why you’re striking,� Chavez said bluntly.

They wouldn’t be, Rachel said, if all they had to pay for health care was $5 a week for an individual, or $15 for a family, as management has suggested.

“We’d be crazy not to take that,� Rachel said. “I’d even take a wage cut [she makes $12.17 an hour] to keep some of the benefits we’ve got.�

But that $5 fee is just the beginning, she said. They’ll have deductibles of $500 to $750, she claimed.

“Mine’s $4,800,� Chavez said.

Yeah, but they’ll also have spending caps and big co-payments, Rachel said. And they’ll end up paying a fat percentage of a relatively modest income for a health plan that’s vastly inferior to what they have now.

Well, Chavez said, that’s not the story as he knew it. But that’s what you get with labor negotiations. There’s all the stuff one side tells you, and then there’s all the stuff the other side tells you.

“And then there’s the truth,� he said.

Exactly. And right now, it’s hard to cut through the chaff.

But Rachel is right -- employees wouldn’t be striking over $5-a-week payouts. They think management has grossly underplayed how much it’s really going to cost employees, and they worry that eventually they’ll be driven into the growing ranks of the uninsured.

“You know what the whole thing comes down to?� Chavez said as we left Albertsons. “I’ve got friends with the best health care, and every time they stub their toe they want an MRI. That drives everyone’s costs up. And then you’ve got people on the low end who get treated for free, and that drives everyone’s costs up, too.�

Maybe now is the time, Chavez said, to quit this insanity and convert to universal health care. It can’t be worse than what we’ve got now -- 300 million dissatisfied customers nationwide, and counting.

As I wrote on Sunday, state Sen. Sheila Kuehl is trying to rescue California, at least, with a plan that would lower health care costs, give equal coverage to everyone, and, as a bonus, put health insurance companies out of business.

I messed up the location of her Oct. 27 presentation, though. Kuehl will be speaking at 2 p.m. and again at 6:30 p.m. at the Four Points Sheraton Hotel on West Pico in Santa Monica. Call St. John’s Health Center at (310) 829-8453 to reserve a seat.

Steve Lopez writes Sunday, Wednesday and Friday.