Salary Cap Initiative Inching Forward
A labor union backing ballot initiatives that would cap hospital prices and the salaries of their top executives is making progress in gathering signatures, officials said earlier this week.
The SEIU-United Healthcare Workers West has enlisted 500 paid signature gatherers to obtain the signatures of the 500,000 registered voters required to put the initiatives on the November ballot.
Union President Dave Regan told the San Francisco Business Times that the signature gathering was ahead of schedule and that the minimum threshold was expected to be achieved by the end of March. Union officials have said that about 800,000 signatures would need to be gathered by mid-April to reach a safe margin for the certification process by the California Secretary of State.
The price initiative would bar hospitals from charging no more than 25% above the cost of actually providing care. The salary initiative would cap compensation to executives of not-for-profit hospitals at $450,000 a year.
The SEIU-UHA has been ginning up support for the two initiatives by releasing data about specific hospital prices.
“Of all the people in this country who file for bankruptcy, 60 percent of them cite high medical bills as the source of their financial collapse,” Regan said “Our ballot initiative will get outrageous hospital prices under control in California, and help protect consumers from having to file for bankruptcy just because they went to get medical treatment.”
The two initiatives have received the support of several prominent lawmakers, including Sen. Mark Leno, D-San Francisco, chair of the Senate Budget Committee, and Assemblywoman Nancy Skinner, D-Berkeley.
Both hospital price transparency and compensation have become matters of public debate in recent years. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Office of Inspector General said in its recently released work report for 2014 that it was exploring placing salary caps on hospital executives to see if it can wring savings out of the Medicare program.
The initiatives are both opposed by the California Hospital Association. Other critics say the union is using them in order to leverage its bargaining power with providers on frontline worker pay and benefits.
