In the midst of a pandemic, health insurance might seem like a necessity. But for one Las Vegan, who was laid off from his job at a stage lighting company Wednesday, health insurance could be one of the first things to go as he adjust his finances in this difficult time.
“I have lots of bills: child support, car payment, it’s a lot of things. Health insurance is not really on the top of my list right now,” said the worker, who asked not to be identified out of fear of not being rehired.
He was one of approximately 40 Las Vegas-area employees laid off this week from Christie Lites, due to coronavirus, said founder and CEO Huntly Christie. Employees in other states have also been laid off from the stage lighting company, which services concerts, conventions and conferences.
“We’ve worked extremely hard to build and assemble a team. It was a really painful process to see people lose their jobs,” said Christie, who doesn’t know how long it will be before the company starts rehiring.
Other companies in the events industry are laying off lighting technicians, production planners and others as events and conferences get canceled in an attempt to slow the spread of coronavirus, Christie said. The disease has infected more than 130,500 people worldwide, including over 1,300 in the United States and eight in Clark County.
In Las Vegas, a hub for conferences and conventions, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations summit, the Adobe summit, and the Republican Jewish Coalition conference that President Donald Trump was to attend last week are among the canceled events. One of Clark County’s presumptive positive coronavirus cases is a New York resident who attended the Women of Power Summit that took place March 5-8 at the Mirage.
For those in the event-planning industry, Christie expects the economic impact of coronavirus to be devastating, potentially resulting in bankruptcies for some companies.
“When we talk about shows, these are shows that tens of thousands are coming to globally,” he said. “When you think of hotel occupancy, convention center fees, all of the labor, that’s got to be a big chunk (of people).”
The coronavirus pandemic’s economic impacts are being felt worldwide, with U.S. stock indexes plummeting last week. But the financial toll on everyday workers in Nevada, ranging from layoffs to lack of paid sick leave or health insurance, should concern all Nevadans, said Erika Washington, executive director of Make It Work Nevada.
“I think what concerns me the most is there are a lot of folks who are living paycheck to paycheck and barely scraping by,” Washington said. “Something like an illness is what puts people under. You end up in that cycle of poverty that is difficult for people to get out of.”
Gov. Steve Sisolak signed an emergency regulation last week that requires health insurance companies in the state to cover testing for COVID-19, the virus that causes coronavirus. The uninsured can get tested for free by visiting a federally qualified health center, said Southern Nevada Health District spokesperson Jennifer Sizemore.
For those who need to self-quarantine after testing positive or while awaiting test results, the health district will work with patients to “meet their needs,” including potential financial burdens that may result from the standard 14-day quarantine, Sizemore said.
But when it comes to treatment for those who contract coronavirus, there is no guarantee that those costs will be covered, even for those with insurance. Trump claimed Wednesday that insurance companies had agreed to waive treatment costs, but the industry has made no such commitment, according to the Associated Press. Almost 398,000 Nevadans, or about 14% of the state’s population, are uninsured, the sixth highest rate in the nation.
Another emerging issue for workers in Nevada in light of coronavirus is paid leave.
The Nevada Legislature passed a law last year requiring employers with 50 or more workers to guarantee them each .01923 hours of paid leave for every hour worked and at least 40 hours of paid leave per year. But the law doesn’t apply to most Nevada businesses, as the “vast majority” have fewer than 50 employees, said Sen. Joyce Woodhouse, D-Henderson, a sponsor of the bill.
The measure, which became law Jan. 1, was written that way to appease the business community, Woodhouse said.
“When we drafted this legislation … none of us anticipated that the United States and the world would get hit by coronavirus as we have been, and we’ll have to see what kind of impact that will have on a measure like this going forward,” she said.
Woodhouse is not aware of any efforts in the state to ensure paid leave for all workers, including those working at small businesses, nor to make paid leave longer than five standard workdays. But some employers in the area are taking things into their own hands during this crisis.
For example, Wynn Las Vegas introduced emergency sick leave policies on their own accord, guaranteeing all employees five days of paid sick leave and full pay for the duration of treatment if they contract coronavirus, said Deanna Pettit-Irestone, executive director of public relations for the company. The Culinary Union is in the process of negotiating with all resort companies to ensure fair wages, job security and health care benefits during this time, said communication director Bethany Khan.
“There are new proposals on the table regarding additional protections for workers in response to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic,” Khan said.
Trump said he plans to offer relief for hourly workers who do not have paid leave, although it is unclear when. In the meantime, Washington worries that Nevada workers who cannot get paid time off might go to work while sick, potentially infecting others.
“Whose fault is it — the person who came to work, thinking, ‘I gotta pay my rent, my car payment and my electricity bill?’ How do you make that choice?” she said.
Working families could be further strained if the Clark County School District were to cancel schools, as has been done in New York City, Seattle, Ohio and elsewhere. That would leave many parents scrambling to find child care, or forced to stay home from work, some without pay, Washington said.
“I’m not really sure how we handle that,” she said. “The purpose of all of this is we need to think about these things ahead of time, because in the final moment when we have to make these knee-jerk decisions, that’s not the way to live.”