ObamaCare for Taxi Drivers

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"Flagging Down Taxi Drivers To Sign Up For Obamacare

Dan Ware has been driving a taxicab in Chicago for more than a decade, but he still  doesn't have what many jobs offer: health insurance.

"I'm without health coverage," he says.

And that's not unusual, says Chicago Public Health Commissioner Bechara Choucair. "What we know in Chicago is that around 70 percent of taxi drivers are uninsured," Choucair says.

That means about 8,000 cabbies could be eligible for coverage under the Affordable Care 

Act. Nationwide, there are more than 200,000 taxicab drivers, and so in a few big cities 

— including Chicago — supporters of the Affordable Care Act are working to recruit them 

to sign up before this month's open enrollment deadline.

Choucair says a couple of years ago, a study showed taxi drivers in Chicago had plenty of health problems, largely due to the long hours they spend behind the wheel.

"They don't eat as healthy, they don't exercise as much and those are definitely risk factors for diabetes, for heart disease, for strokes," Choucair says.

Add to that chronic back issues that can come from sitting and health problems caused 

by traffic accidents.

Kevin Counihan, CEO of Connecticut's health insurance exchange, hopes to be able to market

 their expertise............. "

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Tampa Bay Taxi Business History / part "Tampa"

How taxi companies Yellow Cab, United rose to dominance in Hillsborough

TAMPA — In 1967, the manager of the only cab company in town told the Tampa Taxicab Commission his drivers made about $112 per week. Adjusted for inflation, that's $742 in today's dollars.

Taxi drivers were employees then, with health insurance, vacations and bonuses, city records show. But in 1975, the Yellow Cab Co. jumped on a national trend and made its drivers independent contractors. The agreement cost cabbies their benefits but let them keep whatever they made.

At the time, Yellow Cab manager Nick Cambas told the Tampa Times: "This should be the answer to those squawking about the little man not having a chance to make it in business."

Thirty-six years later, the little man still awaits his chance.

Drivers today say the system leaves them poor and at risk. Their predicament is compounded by a lack of choices: Two companies control 87 percent of the county's permits..............

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Health Insurance for Taxi drivers

Tampa Bay, Florida
Tampa Bay News: Extend health coverage to those who need it

They could be your neighbors. People who go to work every day in Florida — painting houses, opening the bakery, driving a taxi, waiting tables, working at a day care or running a small mom-and-pop business that's barely breaking even. • It could be you. • These are the faces of uninsured people in our state, of working Floridians who don't receive health insurance through their job and don't earn enough to buy coverage for themselves. • Too many of them have put off medical checkups and screening tests because they can't afford them, only to discover during a visit to the ER that they have an advanced disease that could have been caught earlier. Too many have learned the hard way that health is connected to your ability to work, and a vicious cycle begins when serious illness goes untreated......