Officially, Japanese workers work an average of about
15 hours overtime per month. Unofficially, 40 to 50 hours
overtime per month (usually at a rate of time and a quarter) is
common. Their rush hour occurs after 9 pm!! As a result, Japanese
home life is practically non-existent! Increasingly, their suicide
rate reflects the stress of employment oriented lives. {B192}
Moreover, refusing to work overtime puts their jobs in jeopardy,
although this is rarely an issue in Japan because, despite their
high wages, their dependency on overtime is necessitated by a
highly inflated cost of living which predictably marches ahead
of their increasing wages.
In other words, legislation passed in the first few days of
George Bush's administration (to allow the Mexican garment industry
workers to work at home) threatens to open the floodgates for
industrialists to conscript unemployed Americans to do piece work
at home for minimum wage (or even less), and with possibly no
benefits (i.e. no medical, no dental or no pension). {B193} As was mentioned
earlier, there is even a current push on by the elite to have
the immigration laws changed to facilitate the emigration of citizens
from Eastern European countries to flood the American labor market
with extremely cheap labor.
The St. Louis-based communications company, Southwestern Bell has a employee health care plan that is provided by the Prudential Insurance Co. If an employee uses one of the doctors selected by the Prudential Insurance Co. a standard doctor's visit costs about $5. If the employee chooses to use a doctor not selected by the insurer, the employee must pay a $300 deductible as well as paying 20% of the costs. The alternatives leave most employees little real choice.
Southern California Edison is considering a plan that uses an "exclusive provider" condition, where only patients using the selected doctors will be covered.
Aetna Life & Casualty, the firm which provides health insurance for Florida Power and Light Co., has hired its own nurses to visit the hospitals where FPLC employees are being treated. Under the terms of the plan, the nurses are empowered to monitor the patients treatments, audit their bills, and even recommend that a patient be discharged. Although the patient's doctor has the final say, the insurance coverage can become a potential matter for dispute.
It is no secret that health care insurance programs with "preferred providers" (i.e. selected doctors) are chosen by corporations because the plans are cheaper with regard to employer contributions. An Insurance company bent on maximizing its own profits is in the position of choosing between more expensive doctors with proven abilities, or inexperienced graduates. It is not surprising then that surveys report workers complaining about having received inferior health care. The potential conflicts of interest, and the opportunities for abuse should be obvious, especially with regard to employment-oriented illnesses.
In addition, employees are having to face substantial increases in paycheck deductions to meet health care costs which are rising at almost twice the nation's official inflation rate. As with car insurance deductibles, health insurance deductibles mask the continuing reductions to America's standard of living. {B196}
The new "preferred provider" health care plans, being offered by 30% of the nation's corporations are so unpalatable to American workers that at present, 60% of the 85 strikes (which The Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service is at present mediating) involve health benefits issues. {B197}
Many firms which owe future retirement medical benefits to current employees are threatening to go into Chapter 11 bankruptcy as a means of bargaining down the liabilities owed to employees who