Any day now, the Supreme Court is scheduled to rule on the Affordable Care Act, and whatever your opinion is of the legislation, I think it’s high time we talked about health care in Crown Heights. Anyone who has ever worked here can probably attest to the fact that local businesses rarely offer employees health insurance. While businesses may have many financial reasons for not offering such benefits, I believe those justifications pale in comparison to the harm caused by withholding health insurance.
Op-Ed: Local Employers Should Provide Healthcare
Any day now, the Supreme Court is scheduled to rule on the Affordable Care Act, and whatever your opinion is of the legislation, I think it’s high time we talked about health care in Crown Heights. Anyone who has ever worked here can probably attest to the fact that local businesses rarely offer employees health insurance. While businesses may have many financial reasons for not offering such benefits, I believe those justifications pale in comparison to the harm caused by withholding health insurance.
I want to begin by stating that I have the utmost respect for entrepreneurs and small-business owners. People who build a business from the ground up face huge challenges, and I commend anyone who undertakes that kind of Herculean task and manages to be successful at it. Business owners who then use that success to employ local community members and/or to support local schools and charities deserve even more praise. However, as I stated before, these businesses rarely offer full health benefits or even partially-subsidized health care. This leaves employees who are not covered under a spouse’s or parent’s insurance with two options: either purchase private insurance, which can run anywhere from 10,000-30,000 a year, or work off the books and be eligible for Medicaid.
Both of these options hurt employees in the short-term and ultimately contribute to the cycle of poverty in the long-term. Even if a person is making too much money for Medicaid, chances are he or she is not getting paid enough to afford private health insurance. Think of the costs the average religious Jew faces: school tuition, kosher food, shabbos and holidays, to name just a few. If a family adds health insurance to that list, that expense could transform an already-strained financial situation into one of extreme desperation. Under those circumstances, any unforeseen problem, like car trouble or a dental emergency, could lead a family towards the path of financial ruin.
And that’s for the family that buys private health insurance. For the family that doesn’t, they can get by paying out-of-pocket for health care as long as everyone is healthy. But as soon as something goes wrong, G-d forbid, they will also face serious expenses. Even minor things like strep tests add up, and no family ever wants to be in a position where they must choose between paying for a doctor’s visit for their sick child and buying dinner for their other kids. Foregoing regular checkups because of the cost of appointments can also mean that an illness which could easily have been prevented by regular care can grow into something far more serious, G-d forbid.
Some people who are unable to buy private health insurance choose to work off the books in order to receive Medicaid, but this alternative also has its share of drawbacks. First of all, it’s illegal. Secondly, even if legality were not an issue – and I want to be clear that I am not judging anyone who chooses this path in order to provide his or her family with something that can literally save their lives – there are other disadvantages to working off the books. If a person wants to apply for a new job, he or she may not be able to list those jobs that are under the table and will then appear to have no work history. The same problem occurs when a person wants to buy a house but is unable to show legitimate income. Additionally, someone who wants to advance in his or her career might choose not to because the cost of losing Medicaid is simply far greater than the increased income from a better job.
I understand that there are small businesses out there that are struggling and simply cannot afford to offer health insurance, but these businesses do have options. They could partially subsidize health care, or offer health care for the full price through the business but take out the money before taxes. Small businesses could band together in order to get a good employee rate for health coverage.
As for the businesses that are doing well, there is absolutely no excuse for not offering health benefits. I know several business owners personally whose companies are thriving and who have no problem giving tzedaka to local causes but are absolutely opposed to giving benefits to their employees. At the same time, many of these owners rail against the cycle of poverty in this community, argue against Obama’s health care plan and condemn social programs, even as they agree to pay many of their employees off the books so they will be eligible for Medicaid and food stamps. Something doesn’t quite add up here.
Business owners might think that they owe no duty to their employees because they are doing them a big enough favor by giving them jobs. But even if you put aside the question of duty, the lack of benefits actually hurts everyone, including owners. As I’ve already explained, withholding health insurance contributes to the cycle of poverty in this community. As long as the cycle of poverty continues, families will be unable to afford full tuition for schools, schools will be unable to pay teachers in a timely manner, the quality of education will suffer, and as a result, all of us, whether rich or poor, boss or employee, will send our children to schools that simply don’t have enough resources. I applaud the business owners who use their success to support local schools, but perhaps the best way to support education in Crown Heights is to help residents break free from financial hardship.
Granted, offering health insurance to your employees won’t get your name on a wall like giving tzedaka will. It’s just the right thing to do, which means less and less in this day and age but still ought to mean something in this community.
Better off this way
The fact is that based on the types of jobs and salary levels in the community, most people who work for local merchants are eligible for Medicaid or Family Health Plus and are better off with that than with employer-paid insurance that usually comes with enormous copays.
moshepipik
1) offer health care to your employees
2) pay your share
3) raise your prices to cover payments
4) your customers shop elsewhere
5) close your business
Slow change is on the way
As long as the medical industry (Drs, Hospitals and drug makers) continue to be greedy and over charge medical insuranse will never be affordable and will soon be un affordable to the general public.
The big problem is us. Who cares what a doctor or hospital charges? Nobody because insurance pays for it and that is the problem.
But it’s changing more Drs and hospitals are charging less for CASH and THAT will slowly bring down medical costs.
What about the Moisd’s?
Why just the businesses? The local moisd’s have a duty to help their employees get health insurance coverage too, they pay such low salaries this is the least they can do.
I personally know 5 people working for local organizations (or the big Chabad corporate organizations) who are walking around without insurance because they cannot afford it. They just about don’t qualify for medicade, there only choice is to quit work…or hope they don’t have a heart attack….
Pros & Cons
Working in the neighborhood has it’s pros and cons. ie. commute, able to pick up kids etc. but the cons are usually less salary and as you brought up, insurance.
This is up to the employee that decides to work in CH. Obviously , these jobs would best be suited for 2nd household income.
I think your op-ed should be about the education process in not preparing “us” for the real world. The working world. The getting a home, food and insurance world.
You can not ask a business to provide. If they want to secure employees, they will offer incentives to stay and not look elsewhere. Like Health Insurance.
Great idea!
Suppose a small business decides to provide insurance for its 5 employees, where do you suppose the $100,000 or so it costs will come from? The employers pocket? He also has to make a living.
Such expenses get paid for by raising prices. When prices go up, people bring their business and money elsewhere, and the well intentioned employer goes out of business.
And the “cycle of poverty” continues…
start with the doctors in CH
When you go to the emergency room or most doctors around the country and tell them that you do not have insurance they only charge you like $25 per visit in CH it can be from $75 to $100 per 5 minute visit
If you do have insurance doctors make from $10 to $40 per visit but again when a CH resident who cannot afford insurance they take advantage and charge you $75 – $100
Why do the doctors in CH (who btw treat everyone like a product trying to see as many people per hour and then tell you give it a few days and it will go away) need to take advantage of our own?
PS at eastern parkway and albany they never remember my name, i can come in on a monday and then come in again on tuesday and they will not have a clue of who i am or why i am there !
moshe der g
wow
what a waste of space time and energy
simple economics it would cost for a family about 20,000 for a cheap oxford policy and that is about 400.00 a week
employers that hire a person need to make a business decision if hey can afford the employee or not and then they will need to add that cost (and that will lead to discrimination) when a employee hires a single guy and then he gets married and will iyh have children that cost of insurance goes up…
it would be great if they can afford it and some employers that can do pay and some that cannot dont pay
maybe you should write an op ed that the cost of raising a family in crown heights is 130,000.00 a year and the moisdois only pay 55,000.00 so they should pay more.
in simple terms it is all about supply and demand “market economy” if you can get a better job that pays you better because you have better SKILLS go and get that job. but if you can’t then you have 2 choices get better skills and get a better job or stay where you are
and please don’t compare someone’s charity to his business dealings. in business he makes economic decisions.
yankel
just like anothe LIB someone should pay for you. it is the “give me” generation. you are entitled to free healthcare free everything.
1saleaday.com
gives the best health insurance to all of their employees free of charge
and they have monthly bonuses for their workers for cash and products and he gives 50-80% of the sales to tzedakah
people should learn from 1saleaday.com and eli federman
sarah
You sound like the union’s which took down our economy.
all you want is for the hard working people to give it all to you
if you dont like it dont work and a company, nobody is being forced to work!
you can get paid less and get health care or get paid more and find your own healthcare plan.
to the writer
You are obviously a bum sitting on the couch and expect the entire world to pay for all your needs
get up start your own company and lets see what you do with your money after paying 50% in taxes
Struggling Small Business w/several empl
Do you have the $15k-#20k annually to provide each employee with a family plan health insurance, in addition to their regualar salary? Have you ever tried to buy group health insurance? Do you know what the owners really come home with? Maybe we are on Medicaid as well (legally!)Until you can answer these questions, please do not tell struggling small businesses what to do-we already have a president, never having tried to make payroll in his life, who hates anyone who refuses to donate to his campaign and pay off his racket union buddies who does that.
Nobody
When I saw the headline, I was ready to be combative, but the article is more fair than I expected.
However, my fundamental reaction is the same: Go and start a business in Crown Heights, make it successful, and offer health insurance to your employees. Go ahead.
frustrated
Your efforts are misguided. Small businesses cannot afford to offer this to the employees. I believe that you are misguided in your premise. The symptom of the problem is the goverment meddling in the health care arena therby driving up costs for everyone, which creates this vicious cycle.
Not just businesses!
I have been waiting for such an op-ed for a while; I wish I could have written it myself!
However you don’t go far enough. All the organizations in the shuchna that employ people also have a duty to provide affordable insurance to their employees, I know times are tough and that they are not-for-profits but where there is a will there is a way. All these organizations manage to find funding for their “priorities”, they just have to make their employees a priority!
mendel
AGREED
CAPITALISM
Someone is giving you a job. They have the right on their own to choose if they want to provide healthcare. YOU HAVE THE RIGHT TO NOT ACCEPT THE JOB IF THEY DOn’t offer healthcare. Its a free country. You don’t like it, then open your OWN BUSINESS. Enough with all the bickering and entitlements.
Dear Anonymous who seems Clueless
Let me make it very simple for you to understand:
Health insurance would cost employers the same $10,000-$30,000 per year which private insurance costs.
While some employees would be happy to get the insurance instead of the money, I guess many will not. An employer has to look at what an employee costs them vs. what the employee contributes to the business. The cost of an employee includes the payroll, employer FICA (7.65% of roughly first $100,000), employer provided benefits, and associated overhead.
It is this total costs that concerns the employer. If more money is paid for benefits, it will come off something else.
Most importantly, providing health insurance is subject to all kind of participation rules imposed by insurers, as well as various additional laws and regulations. It is an extra headache and burden (not to mention that you can’t get everyone happy with the plan offered).
I am sure that if YOU were an employer and would be aware of all the details, you were very likely NOT to offer health insurance to employees, UNLESS IT WAS IN YOUR OWN BEST INTEREST!
As for your suggestion for “Small businesses could band together in order to get a good employee rate for health coverage”, this is not even an option that is available, regardless if it makes economic sense or not.
I understand your feelings, but before writing an op-ed, try to study the subject objectively and understand it.
Mendel
Business is not a charity organization. Every dollar paid for employee healthcare is a dollar taken out of a mouth of a business owner’s child.
Its a free market – if employees decide to work for a business without health insurance, it is their decision alone.
If people can’t afford paying for health insurance, the community should help them regardless of whom they work for. This Op-ed should have been directed to every single Jew to sponsor his neighbors’ health insurance, instead of a business owner who is struggling to make the ends meet as is.
Welcome
Welcome to Chabad… where employers(in general) act as if they are doing their employees the utmost kindness just by hiring them!
Employment is a Privilege, not a Right
It is very simple. Jobs are at a premium today. Employers are in the driver’s seat (and almost always are). If you do not like the terms you are offered, apply elsewhere or go on welfare. Alternately, do a good job and make yourself valuable to your employer so you deserve any benefits that are given to you.
This culture of expectation is the reason America is falling apart.
Mendel
To #9: employers in Chabad act if they are going an utmost kindness only to those employees who couldn’t get a job elsewhere. No skills, no education – what do you expect to be treated like Steve Jobs?
A piece of advice: when the Rebbe said not to go to college he was talking about intellectual challenge of colleges of those times to Chassidim of those times. Nowadays, with institutions such as YU and Touro those concerns would not apply. Unless you are a macher, getting an education is a good way of doing hishtadlus for Hashem to send you your check!
Money Hungry
Part of the problem that drives health cost up are the doctors who want a nice big salary. yes I understand that it takes many more years to become a doctor but at the same time health is a necessacity and shouldn’t become a business. I recently wasn’t covered for a doctors visit since i was changing insurances. The insurance pays out 40 dollars and I asked the doctor if I could pay the same. His response was I charge 75 dollars . How come he will accept 40 dollars from the health insurance company but from a struggling family they demand 75 dollars. the system is corrupt. If doctors want to strike it rich find another job. Being a doctor is a chesed not a money maker.
If you don-t like it...
Get yourself a proper job
join together
There was an article I read once that Yidden used to join together to form sort of a health co-op and buy insurance or pay for medical expenses but that was when health care was not as costly as it is.
ER
Not sure where the writer who mentioned ER costs got facts from. It costs $500 just to enter the ER. Before being treated.
YU and Touro
@ #23
I got news for you, YU and Touro were around in the Rebbe’s days and he did not approve of his Chassidim going there.
\Go to college if you want but do not call yourself a Lubavitcher Chossid!
Nobody
#23, if you were at all familiar with what the Rebbe says about college, you would know that YU and Toro are not exempt. If you knew anything about college (Google “Higher Education Bubble”) you would know it does nothing anymore to ensure a livelihood, especially if you have to pay back student loans.
Steve Jobs was a college drop out after only 6 months.
Standard practice.
Giving insurance converge to employees is standard practice in America, regardless how skilled or if the employee went to college. It is a pity that Frum America is so evil that it doesn’t care about the people it employs.
Sorry, insurance is not an extra; it is a regular business cost.
Same goes for the not-for-profit sector, outside of the frum community it is standard practice to give your employees insurance, just ask anyone working for the Red Cross, or for that matter, the OU.
Some sensibility
First of all, let’s understand, the reason an employer would offer health insurance to their employees, is for recruitment and retention and only after confirming the employee is still profitable for the business. So if your skills are hard to replace good chance you can negotiate some kind of plan from your employer.
Now, for the employer the health plans don’t cost as much as an employee would have to pay, as they can get corporate rates. Then it is also tax deductible to the employer so there is savings there as well, and then if need be, he can have the employee pay half if he negotiates it that way. Let’s not say that it will cost an employer 20k per employee b/c that just isn’t the truth. So if the employee is willing to lower his take home salary a bit and the boss raises his cost just a bit, it can be done without the bigtime numbers people are throwing around here.
And besides like they say, an employee who doesn’t have to worry about his family as much, can do better work.
L’chaim
DeClasse- Intellectual
Do not forget that under obama care, there was a sweet heart deal made for the drug manufactors and that is one of the major reasons for the cost of medicines.
Until Congress gets of it you know what and gets to wrok on heath care reform and until that person in the White House becomes a leader instead of a whinning finger point politician, this will remain an unsolved issue.
Ensure insure
You can’t have it both ways. If you don’t offer an insurance option to your employees how can you have the nerve to complain when the government steps in. Everyone knows that health insurance is a necessity especially if you have kids.
I understand calling medicaid and food stamps a “hand out” but how can you call it a “hand out” if someone is an employee. If anything it is the opposite.
Everyone understands that it is costly but as soon as you view it as a necessity instead of something extra you can work with your employees to create something that is fair and will ultimately benefit everyone including the company.
mordechai
I find the comments here, disgusting. Yiddishkiet champions Yidden helping other Yidden. But the comments here suggest that people have lost that innate Midah that Yidden have.
Just Me
great article
how do we expect a young couple to star their live financially speaking in crown heights?
rent 1500
food 800
tuition kids 300 per kid minimum.
clothing, travel, phone, all else 300-1000 month
that’s without health costs.
add up to 2900 to 3500 a month net. meaning after taxes and all.
plus health insurance? and the costs get much bigger as the family grows.
lets say at least 30 percent of young couples don’t have that kind of money.
the main fixed costs are rent and tuition for kids. that’s the areas where CH has to lower the burden on people.
this has nothing to do with capitalism or socialism it has to do with common decency and common sense.
we can’t preach emuna to kids in yeshiva and expect cold hard cash a few years later for tuition.
Hashem should help all of us to yearn enough to pay our bills.
To #34
There is only a chiyuv Tzedaka when there is money to pay for it. (There is an Issur to give more than 1/5). Many small businesses struggle as it is to pay employees (the owner does not make as much as everyone thinks, especially in these times). To have to pay health insurance would put them out of business, and many business owners would love to be able to offer insurance as a means of attracting talented employees. (This is not only by frum businesses, but small businesses as a whole). Arayos are also called Chesed – when you swing too much the wrong way, it is also wrong.
Is this the true face of Lubavitch?
The comments on this article make me sick. Many people in Crown Heights are evil. Why do we have Shomrim or Hatzalah or Chevra Kadisha? After all, every minute those people spend helping the neighborhood is taking time from putting food in their own children’s mouths. Next time a kid is choking, or a man has a heart attack, let them drop dead. After all, why should anyone take even one second from their own time to help anyone else? And since the City operated 911 is the definition of Socialism, the city ambulance or fire department shouldn’t come to these Rush-Limbaugh-inspired Reshoim either. Let them call three private ambulance companies and get a bid. And even though their family member will die, at least they had “Capitalism.” Until Hatzolah/Shomrim stop making calls to businesses and mosdos, letting the business owners and heads of mosdos who don’t provide health insurance fend for themselves, no more $100 raffle tickets for me.
DaasTorah
“argue against Obama’s health care plan and condemn social programs, even as they agree to pay many of their employees off the books so they will be eligible for Medicaid and food stamps”
The author just uncovered a major hypocrisy in the frum community.
mom in ch
Healthcare is a frum company expense- when a family is sick and doesn’t have health insurance and racks up major bills they turn to the community and the bikkur cholim to bail them out. If employers would pay health insurance costs- the overall cost to the community would be far less
This article IS the problem.
To the author:
How can you demand that in a free market an employer should be required to give provide any kind of benefit?
Do you understand how sick and twisted your proposal is?
Why don’t YOU start a business and offer perks to your employees?
YOU just don’t get it. Employers these days walk home with LESS than the employees do. As a matter of fact, as a recent article points out, certain business owners have not made any money AT ALL this past year!
READ THIS:
Mendel
#34 absolutely. Yidden should help other Yidden, but when did the Torah make a struggling business owner more obligated in doing chessed than anyone else?
Let’s have our kollel yungerlait do chessed, go to medical school and give out free healthcare for the rest of their lifes. That would be Yidden helping other Yidden.
If employees want healthcare, they are free to choose an employer that provides it. This is a free market. Stop your parasite mentality.
to#7 and # 27
So go to the emergency room that will charge you $25!!! I hear Belvue Hospital does for eligible patients.
Moderate
“If you do not like the terms you are offered, apply elsewhere or go on welfare.”
“This culture of expectation is the reason America is falling apart.”
Then Republican, big money CH employers who pay under the table and don’t offer benefits shouldn’t blame Liberals for the benefit system when they’re aggressively forcing people to use it.
DeClasse-
Your view of government and President Obama’s position is inaccurately simplified. No president has as much power as it appears and they always have to compromise their values. Since you think he’s a “whinning finger point” type, he should get along perfectly with most negative ch.info commenters.
disgusted with the entitlement attitude
to number 24 if you had any clue how you have to fight the insurance companies for even $1 that they owe you, you would go nuts. doctors dont like to accept “$40” but the insurance companies “logic” is that what they make up the money in “volume”. so instead of paying a decent rate they just expect doctors to see more patients. further you are talking about Medicaid not insurance, which you are not even paying for that. so you want free insurance and you want free service boy the world really owes you, big macher who are you you special privilege character you. and as far as being a doctor is not a business — grow up. if you want to go to a “free clinic” and not pay anything go right ahead. if you want to get quality service you go to a private doctor and you PAY. a doctor is entitled to get paid his worth. not to mention that he has to pay an entire staff and for equipment and supplies. do you think that grows on trees or gets there by magic? maybe you should not be paid for your job? maybe you should do it out of the kindness of your heart. or maybe you dont work at all and expect (obviously) that you should get whats coming to you for free (please read that with the sarcasm that is intended). You sound like a spoiled rotten child. again I say grow up and act like an adult
me me me narcissistic much
to number 7 and all those who “dont like” their doctors or how they run their business. go somewhere else. no one is forcing you to stay. and if your staying then obviously you like the care you are given. complain complain complain and yet you expect service instantly. like you are the only one in the world that has a problem. people are so ignorant. they only have to deal with themselves and their own. a doctors office deals with hundreds of people a day and thousands of problems a day and dozens of real emergencies a day. not to mention the hundreds of phone calls at any given time. you expect everyone to remember everything about you? you are being unreasonable.
get up and go to work
to those who are against college cuz the Rebbe said so. I am of course not disagreeing, however, that could also have been at a time college was not good, how do you know with all the options (like college on line or frum colleges) that the Rebbe would have maybe amended his opinion. further there are many people that the Rebbe told to finish their college educations. and where as I don’t advocate college per-say there are some careers that require a college education. CPA’s Doctors, Architects, Lawyers etc. If you are frum and you get married and have a family it would be nice to be able to support them by having a job that would give you benefits and a decent salary and be able not to live off the government. When I was a child having food stamps or welfare etc. was an embarrassment now its totally excepted. there is nothing wrong with having some ambition to actually want better that to be a Medicaid/ welfare recipient.
to # 45
You are wrong
You cant expect for someone living in CH that every time one of their children get sick they should run to flatbush.
and most important, if you are charging $75–$100 for a visit, you definitely expect service for that and if you can not provide that service don’t charge that much, but they know that people have no choice and need a doctor so they charge that
its called taking advantage of the customer because you know the customer has no choice and that is wrong.
Nobody
#37,
Someone who says “what is yours is mine and mine is yours” is an am haretz. That sums up the article, if looked at generously. If not, it is really about “what is yours is mine, and what is mine is mine” etc.
Demanding Chesed of others while doing nothing yourself has nothing to do with Rush Limbaugh or any other of your fantasy boogeymen.
from 45 to 47
that is exactly what i did when my children were small before dr’s were in C/H’s I went to flatbush, and yes if you want a certain dr you can travel. and yes i can expect that. if i was that unhappy you can bet your a** I would travel to someone else i liked. I took bus’ I took trians. so if you want to get sympathy for your being a spoiled brat you wont get it here.
Employment is a Privilege, not a Right
Then Republican, big money CH employers who pay under the table and don’t offer benefits shouldn’t blame Liberals for the benefit system when they’re aggressively forcing people to use it.
—
There are hardly any big money CH employers. CH is shlepping along – both bosses who open stores at 11 and their workers who spend little time working just do the bare minimum to get by.
And no one is forcing anyone to commit welfare fraud or use benefits. People are doing it on their own. Some owners pay under the table because they can’t afford ridiculous employment taxes that bring the pay of a worker who is one step above a chessed case to very high levels.
Laziness and “G-d will provide” with no hishtadlus are the real problems in CH. I don’t live there anymore and do not even care to visit as it sinks further downhill begu”r.
gedaliah_atl
Hi from Atlanta. As I was reading this I thought it was left out not only how much health insurance costs privately but even if one could get health insurance at all because of a pre-existing condition. But then I remembered in New York state you have “guaranteed issue” but no “individual mandate”. That is why the “individual mandate” is such a big part of “Obamacare”. Under health reform if enacted in 2014 if it is not struck down, Medicaid elegability will be greatly expanded, and subsidizes for families with incomes up to $88,000 will make health insurance affordable as a percentage of income. This is a great example how a piece of federal legislation can have a powerful impact on a community, such as the religious Jewish community of Crown Heights.
Employment is a Privilege, not a Right
This is a great example how a piece of federal legislation can have a powerful impact on a community, such as the religious Jewish community of Crown Heights.
—
Yes. It will cause the more ambitious among us to join communities that shluchim built up abroad, where we can create opportunities for people who appreciate them and don’t just keep saying “gimme.” Satmarer Chassidim and Syrian Jews are already running businesses in Asia, and we will soon join them.
It will also drive the most ambitious among us to devise ways around traditional employment using technology such as the Internet that lets people work for us without employee status.
America was a malchus shel chessed when it allowed freedom of opportunity. Now, it is moving toward the stifling socialism that is killing Europe.