Hawaii Tribune-Herald from Hilo, Hawaii • 1

WEDNESDAY Crib dangers nationwide page 10 61ST YEAR NO. 62 HILO, HAWAI'I, Hawai'i votes 2-1 in favor of uncommitted Hawai'i Democrats voted by a 2-to1 margin in "Super Tuesday" caucuses to send most of their 27 delegates to the Democratic National Convention uncommitted to any candidate. In the secret-ballot straw poll, 63.5 percent of the card-carrying Democratic voters cast their ballots to send uncommitted delegates to the convention, while 32.3 percent voted for Walter Mondale and 4.2 percent for Jesse Jackson. With results still unofficial, 1,790 votes were tallied for uncommitted delegates, 911 in support of Mondale, and 118 for Jackson, officials said. "The unofficial Big Island results are as follows: -1st Representative DistrictJesse Jackson, 0, Walter Mondale, 24, uncommitted, 35.

-2nd Representative DistrictJackson, 10, Mondale, 44, uilcommitted, 58. -3rd Representative DistrictJackson, 7, Mondale, 9, uncommitted, 25. -4th Representative DistrictJackson, 0, Mondale, 17, uncommitted, 11. -5th Representative DistrictJackson, 2, Mondale, 20, uncommitted, 35. State Democratic Party chairman James Kumagai applauded the decision.

"I felt that there wasn't enough discussion, there wasn't enough dialog with the public, with the grassroots," Kumagai said. "I really felt that was an important part of the process." Party officials said 14 delegates. would attend the convention this summer uncommitted, while five delegates would join Mondale's camp. The actual delegates will be selected at the state convention in May. Hawai'i's other eight delegates will be represented by elected and party officials, all of whom are officially uncommitted.

Sen. Daniel Inouye and Rep. Cec Heftel, however are publicly spark warning TRIBUNE WEDNESDAY, WINNERS Sen. Gary Hart, top, was after Super Tuesday voting. supporting Mondale.

Party members had only three choices in the straw poll-voting for Mondale, voting for Jackson, or remaining uncommitted. The other candidates did not get their names on UPW is opposed to hospital transfer The United Public Workers Union this morning raised opposition to proposals for the county's takeover of Hilo Hospital or a takeover by a private non-profit organization. The objections were raised at the Council Public Works Committee meeting. "We do not believe that this county has the financial resources to manage the hospital," said Jack Konno, UPW division director on the Big Island. "Our union does not believe that a hospital being managed by a corporation will ultimately cure all the ills of a public hospital." Konno said the State Senate bill for transferring the hospital to the county has not addressed a number of concerns of his union.

"The media reports that the bill only contains general provisions and that current employees on board will retain Civil Service status and continue to enjoy all of the benefits," he said. "But there was a provision in State Rep. Herbert Segawa's bill which stated that after the corporation takes over, new employees will not become Civil Service workers. that imply that Hilo Hospital in the future will become a private hospital? After the corporation takes over operations from the county, what happens to the existing bargaining unit contracts? Will those contracts be in force or will the unions Index Vulcans face Nebraska riding 10-game streak story on page 5 HERALD 0 MARCH 14, 1984 8 SECTIONS 60 PAGES 25 DELEGATE SCORE Previous Tuesday Total Mondale 158 139 Hart 44 154 Glenn 17 13 Jackson 10 25 McGovern 0 20 Unc 109 38 Total 338 389 and SO was John Glenn, right, Supporters of Gary Hart, organized only days before balloting, also mounted a to urge party members to send committed delegates to the vention. Classified 34-36 Comics 33 Crossword 33 Dear Abby 12 Entertainment 27 Horoscope 11 Obituaries 10 Opinion Sports 5-9 Stocks 10 TV log 27 CENTS Weather 10 It's a split By Lawrence McQuillan UPI political reporter decision Gary Hart, who won three of Super Tuesday's five primaries, said today he could have scored a knockout with more time and still needs to become "better known." Walter Mondale predicted the Democratic race will be a marathon.

Both candidates showed strength in yesterday's contests and set out early today to campaign for the next round of primaries and caucuses, but the three other Democratic candidates foundered. George McGovern, the party's 1972 standardbearer, told supporters his second trek on the campaign trail was over, and Sen. John Glenn of Ohio, who has been keeping his candidacy alive with large loans, was evaluating his situation. Jesse Jackson, running for the first time in with large black constituencies, ran better in his native South than he has elsewhere and assured himself of continued matching funds from the government. Jackson predicted today on NBC's "Today" program that if Mondale and Hart both continue strong, he will be a power broker at the Democratic National Convention.

"We'll be a factor to be dealt with," he said. Hart today brushed aside suggestions that his strength is ebbing somewhat, noting that he was not even considered a factor in the race until recently. "I don't see how my support in the South could erode when it was said a week ago that it didn't exist at all," Hart said. "I think it's a miracle that we won the state of Florida. I think it's'a miracle that we almost won the who state of Georgia.

Our support wasn't the eroding, I think it was expanding. "If I had had a couple more weeks to un- campaign in the South, I'm abcon- solutely convinced I could have carried the other two Southern states Related stories page 3 (Alabama and Georgia)," Hart said. "My biggest challenge right now is still to become better Hart used his "new ideas" theme to produce wins in the Florida, Massachusetts and Rhode Island primaries, while Mondale parlayed his links to Jimmy Carter and organized labor to pull out primary victories in Georgia and Alabama. Tuesday's 11 primaries and caucuses picked 511 delegates to the Democratic National a fourth of those needed for the nomination in the biggest night of the 1984 campaign. In the Western caucuses, Hart won in Nevada.

With 557 of the 738 precincts counted, Hart led 1,662 to 1,122 over Mondale. In Oklahoma, Hart and Mondale were tied at about 41 percent each, with nearly 85 percent of the votes counted. Officials stopped compiling results until later today. In Washington, with only 370 precincts of the state's 6,000 precincts reporting, Hart held 54 percent of delegates and Mondale 34 percent. Hawaii Democrats voted in caucuses by more than a 2-1 ratio to send most of their 27 delegates to the Democratic National Convention uncommitted to any candidate.

Party officials said 14. delegates would attend the convention this summer uncommitted while five delegates would join Mondale's camp. Democrats in American Samoa picked 3. pledged delegates for Mondale in a caucus. "I feel very good about developments," said a relieved Mondale, whose strong organization and hefty endorsements did little to keep him from being overwhelmed by successive defeats to Hart in New Hampshire, Maine, Vermont and Wyoming.

smiling; so was Walter Mondale, left; the ballot by the deadline. Although Inouye came out strongly for a vote in favor of Mondale, other party officials including titular party head George Ariyoshi urged members to remain uncommitted. Skyrocketing medical costs oppressive, employers say By Gene Tao Tribune- be required to resolve all disputes or grievances with the private corporation?" Konno asked. He urged the members of the Public Works Committee to protect "those gains made by the working people." He said his union holds the same position as those who believe the hospitals should provide quality patient care. He said his union also holds no animosity against fired hospital administrator John Hankins.

"But we sincerely hope that our state legislators' and the county administration's motives are not simply politics based on the plus signatures on the petition which asked for the reinstatement of John Hankins," Konno said. He said as a union representative, he has a responsibility to protect the interest and welfare of his union members. And he said, "We have some great fears about a corporation taking over control of the hospital. We hope that the administration will -consider including the union in the discussions that are presently going on." Konno said Mayor Herbert Matayoshi was quoted as saying the county will be capable of managing the acute care facility, "but what about the extended care facility and the psychiatric unit within the hospital?" he asked. By David E.

Rosenbaum N.Y. Times Service NEW YORK-Many American employers say the cost of medical care, which has risen more than tenfold in the last two decades, has become an oppressive burden to their businesses. Lee A. Iacocca, chairman of the Chrysler one of the companies hardest hit by workers' growing medical bills, said that if the nation's system of health care is not revamped, "You'll see a lot of broke companies." The Reagan administration has tried to cope with the inflation in -care costs by imposing limits on federal Medicare payments. Several other large corporations, including General Motors, Ford, Citibank, and W.R.

Grace, are trying to limit their health costs by pressing workers to pay a larger share of their own medical bills. The workers are resisting, arguing that health benefits are a right they won in collective bargaining. An examination of Chrysler's problems offers insights into why medical costs have exploded, how they can affect a company and its workers, how doctors and hospitals exploit the system, and how intractable the problem appears to be. But Chrysler is also a special case, for these reasons: -Three members of the Chrysler board, Iacocca, Douglas A. Fraser, and Joseph A.

Califano consider themselves in many respects responsible for the expensive way the nation's health care system evolved and are discussing changes. -Chrysler's medical costs are much greater than those of most other companies. Health insurance premiums alone last year amounted to $6,000 for each employee, double the rate as recently as 1979 and, by one calculation, four times the national average. -Chrysler officials are focusing on their health costs more closely than are officials of as long as I was making a ton of money, it most other corporations. Despite its record didn't matter to me." profits last year, the company's executives are the end of the 1970s, Chrysler, like the mindful of the fact that they were recently on By other major car companies, was paying all the the edge of bankruptcy.

insurance premiums for its workers and -The United Automobile Workers fought in and vain for years to change the country's health retirees, and for their dependents survivors. The policy covers the entire cost of care system, while Chrysler and the other auto medical and their hospitalizations and tests, makers sat on their hands. Now the roles are of almost all of the cost outpatient dental, reversed. supports psychiatric, vision, and hearing care. For While the union officially national health insurance and other alterations retired workers and their surviving spouses, to the system, it is most interested in keeping that the insurance pays nearly everything the health benefits it has won in negotiations Medicare does not.

over the years. Iacocca, Fraser, and Califano meet monthly The policy pays for up to two years of conto discuss the company's health-cost problem. valescent care in a nursing home, and it picks For years Iacocca, who was president of the up all charges above $3 a prescription for Ford Motor Co. before he joined Chrysler, and drugs. Workers who are laid off get full benefits Fraser, theretired president of the UAW, were for a year at Chrysler and for two years at the on opposite of the table negotiating other automobile companies, one of the few contracts that gave the auto workers lifetime instances where the policies differ from health insurance and set the standard for many company to company.

companies and unions. Califano, as President Johnson's chief ad- "We have the best coverage in the country viser on domestic policy, helped write the except maybe for the U.S. Congress," Fraser Medicare and Medicaid laws that set in motion said. the inflation of medical costs. As secretary of health, education, and welfare under President Chrysler's costs are unusually high not only Carter, he was unsuccessful in reining in those because the concern's medical insurance plan costs.

is so generous, but also because it is paying "Fraser and Califano and I know where all premiums for many no longer active workers. the skeletons are buried," Iacocca said in an so Chrysler's work force is much smaller than the Waldorf it used to be that nearly half the people who interview in his 38th-floor suite at Towers. "We created the problem in the first benefit from its policy are retirees or their spouses or survivors. place." Shortly after World War II, Fraser recalled, his union had to fight merely to get the com- According to Harry Spring, a corporate panies to deduct health insurance premiums benefits expert at Coopers Lybrand, the from workers' paychecks. But with each new accounting firm, the ratio of workers to contract, the union won better health benefits.

retirees at companies! he surveyed is about 9-toThe companies went along, Iacocca said, 1. Spring calculated that, on average, those golden business." companies paid about $1,250 in health inbecause "we were a goose "We were rich and fat and sloppy and lazy," surance premiums for each active worker in he said. "The costs weren't so great then, and, 1982. At Chrysler in 1983, the figure was $6,000..