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USW Denounces Off Shoring of Health Care Services

For Immediate Release                                               Sept. 11, 2006

PITTSBURGH  - The United Steelworkers today denounced a shocking new approach that employers are considering to limit health care expenses – sending employees to India or other lower-cost countries for expensive medical procedures.

Dubbed “medical tourism” by the media, the idea of outsourcing medical care to lower-cost countries is finding its way into corporate agendas as a way to cut health care costs.

“Our members, along with thousands of unrepresented workers, are now being confronted with proposals to literally export themselves to have certain ‘expensive’ medical procedures provided in India,” USW President Leo W. Gerard said in a letter sent today to Senate and House committees with jurisdiction over health care issues.

Blue Ridge Paper Products, Inc., of Canton, N.C., proposed sending one of its employees, a USW member, to India for surgery – a move that would have saved the self-insured company tens of thousands of dollars.

The USW, however, intervened and t