A nonprofit employee benefit fund providing health care to some 100,000 participants in the retail food industry, including employees, their dependents and retirees, voiced strong support today for Blue Shield’s struggle to protect the health benefits of working Californians and their families.
In a statement released today, the trustees of the UFCW & Employers Benefit Trust (UEBT) backed Blue Shield’s efforts to end alleged anti-competitive practices by Sutter Health, a conglomerate that dominates the market for health care services in the region.
“Sutter Health’s unfair practices have been driving up prices for health care,” the trustees said. “The behavior of this giant corporation poses a significant threat to the health benefits of working families.”
The statement continued: “Our only interest is in protecting the health care of honest people who work hard to earn their benefits. We believe a single mother who participates in our plan and goes to work every day as a grocery checker to support her children should be able to provide them with the health care they deserve.
“Sutter dominates Northern California’s independent hospital market and uses its economic power to impose contractual restrictions that insulate it from price competition by high-quality, lower-priced hospitals,” the trustees said. “Those restrictions give Sutter the power to impose large overcharges for its hospital services.
“We applaud Blue Shield for standing firm against Sutter’s attempts to impose new contract terms that would require private arbitration of anti-trust and unfair competition claims.”
The UFCW & Employers Benefit Trust maintains employee benefits plans covering most of the health care costs incurred by members of the United Food and Commercial Workers union (UFCW) and their dependents in Northern California. The Trustees are representatives of the UFCW and unionized grocery employers that fund the health care benefits provided to their employees.
