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Health coverage – a commonsense protection during pregnancy leave

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By Noreen Farrell, Managing Attorney, Equal Rights Advocates & Beth McGovern, Legislative Director, California Commission on the Status of Women

Julia was eight months pregnant when her employer informed her that her health insurance coverage would be dropped during her pregnancy leave. Julia panicked. Without insurance, she faced thousands of dollars in medical bills. Not knowing if she could cover the expenses, Julia worried she would be unable to continue care with her doctor just when she needed it the most. Lack of health insurance coverage exposed Julia and her baby to medical risks, fiscal ruin, and extreme anxiety.  Sadly, Julia is not alone.

Equal Rights Advocates, a San Francisco-based nonprofit legal organization, receives too many calls for help from women like Julia – workers who have lost their health insurance coverage just before or right after the birth of a child.  A gap in California law is putting pregnant women and new mothers in this awful predicament – forced to work or return to work against their doctor’s recommendation, or risk losing the insurance coverage that makes health care affordable.  

Working women make up nearly half of the American workforce, and pregnant women have a stronger connection to the workforce than ever before. In fact, three in four women entering today’s workforce will become pregnant at least once while employed and generally stay in the workforce. Women need access to affordable pregnancy leave so that they can take time off before and after birth without losing pay and important benefits such as health insurance coverage. It is well-documented that lack of pregnancy leave impacts the health of mothers and newborn children. When forced to pay out-of-pocket costs for health coverage, many women delay or cut short their leave.  Indeed, almost four in five workers report being unable to take leave because they could not afford it.  

Pregnancy and childbirth can be the most vulnerable time of a woman’s life. And the risk of complications during pregnancy or childbirth is a very real one. Statistics show that approximately 13 percent of women will have a complication from pregnancy requiring them to be hospitalized before delivery. 20 percent of pregnant women spend a minimum of one week on bed rest during the course of their pregnancy.  That is why access to both continued medical care and leave from work are crucial.

Experts agree on the importance of effective prenatal care and pregnancy leave. UC Berkeley professor Dr. Sylvia Guendelman, a maternal and child health expert, writes:  “Effective prenatal care can help reduce societal and individual burdens to mothers and infants. Working women who are able to get coverage for prenatal care are more likely to take maternity leave, which has been shown to have positive effects on mothers and infants, as well as on employee retention and loyalty.”

While California’s Pregnancy Disability Leave Act enables most workers to take a job-protected leave for a pregnancy-related condition, the law does not require employers to continue health insurance coverage during the leave.  The state legislature has an opportunity to fix this problem. California Senate Bill 299, authored by Senator Noreen Evans, would amend state law to ensure that employers continue health insurance coverage for workers who take leave for pregnancy or childbirth related conditions.  

SB 299 will protect California’s pregnant women, new mothers and their children – a bi-partisan issue that all legislators can proudly get behind.

For more information on SB 299, please visit http://workfamilyca.org/campai…

California

Momentum Grows for Paid Sick Days in California

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By Mariana Huerta & Cathy Dang

Restaurant Opportunities Center of Los Angeles

What did you do for Valentine’s Day?  On the most romantic day of the year and the highest grossing day for restaurants, chances are that you dined at a new or favorite restaurant. Chances are also high that the people who prepared, cooked, and served your food lack a basic workplace protection that makes restaurants healthy for workers and diners: Paid Sick Days.

Depending on what your job is, you might take for granted the fact that you can take off from work and still get paid if you are sick. But a report just released by Restaurant Opportunities Center (ROC) in Los Angeles shows that 89.4% of restaurant workers in the city do not have paid sick days and 58.3% have gone to work while sick. Workers reported they could not take time off when sick, either because they would be penalized or because they couldn’t afford to lose pay. One worker reported having to work cooking food while sick with the H1N1 virus, because he could not afford to take a day off.

We are pretty sure the flu isn’t something you want coming out of the kitchen when you go to a restaurant.

It’s just common sense that sick workers should stay home. Both workers and customers benefit.  Yet some businesses and their lobbyists claim that basic workplace policies like paid sick days would be “job killers.”  Last week a study released by the independent, nonpartisan Institute for Women’s Policy Research (IWPR) provided clear evidence those claims are false.  San Francisco has had a citywide paid sick days policy since 2007. IWPR’s report showed that two-thirds of employers are supportive of the policy and six out of seven reported the law had no negative effect on profitability.

Diners across the country have shown an increasing interest in sustainable food, including locally grown, organic and healthy cuisine.  But food will never be truly sustainable as long as it is prepared, cooked and served by workers who feel forced to work while sick because they fear losing their job or missing a paycheck.  This Valentine’s Day, Assembly member Fiona Ma introduced AB400 to guarantee all California workers the right to paid sick days – a long overdue policy that benefits both workers and businesses.

Read ROC’s Los Angeles report, Behind the Kitchen Door: Inequality and

Opportunity in Los Angeles, the Nation’s Largest Restaurant Industry:

http://www.rocunited.org/files…

To learn more about IWPR’s study, San Francisco’s Paid Sick Leave Ordinance:

Outcomes for Employers and Employees, visit http://www.iwpr.org/publicatio…