Paid Sick Leave Cuts Health Care Costs
If the nation’s workers had access to paid sick days—today, 44 million workers don’t—it would mean a dramatic drop in hospital emergency room visits and save about $1 billion a year in health care costs, according to a new study due to be released this week.
The report by the Institute for Women’s Policy Research (IWPR) says paid sick days are associated with better self-reported health, fewer delays in medical care and fewer emergency department visits for adults and their children. Says IWPR Research Director Robert Drago:
We have known for decades that individuals without health insurance are more likely to use costly emergency room services. This study establishes that, regardless of whether someone has health insurance, having the flexibility provided by paid sick days reduces use of emergency departments.
The report finds that workers with access to paid sick days have an easier time getting to a doctor during normal business hours to care for themselves or family members. Access to paid sick days can help to decrease the likelihood that a worker will put off needed care and increases rates of preventive care among workers and their children.
In other news on paid sick days, AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Liz Shuler told a forum, sponsored by the National Partnership for Women and Families and the coalition Family Values @ Work, that the lack of paid sick leave disproportionately impacts low-income workers.
Paid Sick Leave Now Law in Conn.; Drives Under Way in Denver, Seattle
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Connecticut has become the first state in the nation to have a law requiring employers to provide paid sick days, and efforts to pass similar legislation are under way in several cities and states including Denver, Seattle, New York City, Massachusetts and Georgia. Only two cities in the nation, San Francisco and Washington, D.C., have paid sick leave laws on the books.
In Denver, the AFL-CIO community affiliate Working America is teaming up with a coalition of family and community groups to build support for a paid sick days ballot initiative in this fall’s election. Supporters this week turned in 12,636 signatures—more than three times the required number—on petitions to put the measure on the ballot.
Meanwhile in Seattle, the City Council is considering a bill that would require businesses to provide workers in Seattle up to five, seven or nine days of paid sick leave a year, depending on the size of business and number of work hours accrued. The Seattle Post-Intelligencer reports that Makini Howell, who runs the small vegan eateries Hillside Quickie and Plum Bistro with some 30 employees, said in a hearing on the bill that she supports the legislation because she doesn’t want her employees handling food while sick.
All of us get sick. I can’t afford losing good employees. And I don’t want to serve H1N1 with your fries…If we can do it big businesses can as well. Read the rest of this entry »
New Patient Safety Initiative Could Save 60,000 Lives
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More than 60,000 lives could be saved over the next three years under a new initiative announced today by Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius that would stop millions of preventable injuries and complications in hospital patient care over the next three years.
Already, Sebelius said, more than 500 hospitals, as well as physicians and nurses groups, consumer groups and employers have pledged their commitment to the new Partnership for Patients initiative.
Speaking at a Washington, D.C., press conference, along with representatives from major hospitals, employers, unions, health plans, physicians, nurses and patient advocates, she said:
Americans go the hospital to get well, but millions of patients are injured because of preventable complications and accidents. Working closely with hospitals, doctors, nurses, patients, families and employers, we will support efforts to help keep patients safe, improve care, and reduce costs. Working together, we can help eliminate preventable harm to patients.
The two main goals of the Partnership for Patients are to keep hospital patients from getting injured or sicker and help patients heal without complication. The initiative will target all forms of harm to patients such as preventing adverse drug reactions, pressure ulcers, childbirth complications and surgical site infections.
Lack of Paid Sick Leave Is Family and Public Health Concern
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More than 44 million private-sector workers in the United States—42 percent of the private-sector workforce—don’t have paid sick days they can use to recover from a common illness like the flu, according to new research by the Institute for Women’s Policy Research (IWPR).
The new analysis reveals that more workers lack paid sick days than government reports show because it includes 4.2 million workers who have not been on the job long enough to be eligible for paid sick days.
Debra Ness, president of the National Partnership for Women & Families (NPWF), calls the new data a “jarring reminder that workplace policies in this country are grossly inadequate.”
It should be a compelling call to action for lawmakers at the local, state and federal levels, with unemployment high, jobs scarce and more working families relying on one income instead of two, too many workers forced to sacrifice their health or their financial security when illness strikes or a family emergency occurs.
Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act One Step Closer to Becoming Law
Last night after the Senate passed (61-36) the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Act, overturning the 2007 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that denied justice to Ledbetter—and any worker who suffers pay discrimination—Ledbetter told reporters:
When you win a battle, you’ve sometimes lost battles along the way. We knew we would get here. When right is right, it usually has a way of working out.
Ledbetter thought she had won her battle several years ago when a federal jury found she had been the victim of pay discrimination for nearly 20 years at an Alabama Goodyear tire plant where she was paid less than the men doing the same work.
But the Supreme Court ruled Ledbetter—and other workers—has no right to sue for a remedy in cases of pay discrimination if she—or any worker—waits more than 180 days after the first paycheck, even if she—or any worker—doesn’t discover the pay discrimination until years later, as was the case with Ledbetter.
