BuSINESS

T UESDAY, AUGUST 13, 2019::L ATIMES.COM/BUSINESS

C

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Uber said it’s stopping its service at

Ontario International Airport next

month because of fee increases.

The airport east of Los Angeles now

charges ride-hailing companies such as

Uber and Lyft $4 for a drop-off or pickup,

up from $3. The new fees went into effect

July 1.

San Francisco-based Uber has called

the charges unfair, saying taxicabs and

limousines are assessed a single $3 fee

that covers both a drop-off and a pickup.

It plans to halt service to the airport

starting Sept. 13.

Atif Elkadi, the Ontario airport’s dep-

uty chief executive, said that limousines

are charged $3 each for a drop-off or a

pickup, and that taxis — which do face

only a $3 fee for a pickup and no fee for a

drop-off — pay for a medallion with the

city of Ontario and bear other expenses

Uber and Lyft do not have.

The fee increase came after a nearly

two-year evaluation of all of the airport’s

transportation partners, in which the

airport compared its ride-hailing and

parking prices with those at other air-

ports in South-

TRAVELERS WAIT in the ride-hailing pickup location at Ontario International Airport. Uber and the

airport are arguing about the fairness of the new $4 fee for each drop-off and pickup, up from $3.

Photographs by Allen J. SchabenLos Angeles Times

Uber to drop Ontario

airport over fee hikes

Service will halt on Sept. 13; Lyft will keep going there

AN UBERexecutive says Ontario’s new fee for ride-hailing

companies is the highest in the U.S. for an airport of its size.

By Samantha Masunaga

[SeeUber,C4]

Felicia Morrison is eager

to find a health plan for next

year that costs less than the

one she has and covers more

of the medical services she

needs for her chronic auto-

immune disease.

Morrison, a solo lawyer in

Stockton, buys coverage for

herself and her twin sons

through Covered California,

the state’s Affordable Care

Act, or Obamacare, insur-

ance marketplace. Morri-

son, 57, said that her

monthly premium of $167 is

manageable but that she

spends thousands of dollars

ayear on deductibles, co-

payments and care not cov-

ered by her plan.

“I would just like to have

health insurance for a

change that feels like it’s

worth it and covers your

costs,” she said.

Her chances are looking

up after lawmakers in Sacra-

mento acted to enhance

Covered California for 2020:

They added state-funded

tax credits to the federal

ones that help people pay for

coverage. And they reinstat-

ed a requirement for resi-

dents to have coverage or

pay a penalty — an effort to

ensure that enough healthy

people stay in the insurance

pools to offset the financial

burden of customers with

expensive medical prob-

lems.

Those new policies ap-

peal to insurers. They’ve re-

sponded by expanding oper-

ations in the state, enhanc-

ing competition and offering

consumers more choices.

California’s ACA ex-

change is not the only one

benefiting from the renewed

interest of insurance compa-

nies. Other states are ex-

pected to see more insurers

enter or reenter their

marketplaces next year.

That’s a crucial signal, ex-

perts said, that the state-

based marketplaces, which

cover about 11 million people

nationally, are becoming

HEALTH

PLAN

MARKET

IS MORE

ROBUST

Covered California

draws more insurers

after the state bolsters

Obamacare, offering

users more choices.

By Steven Findlay

[SeeInsurance,C5]

A swath of Kaiser Perma-

nente workers in California

has voted overwhelmingly to

approve a strike that could

draw in more than 80,

employees of the healthcare

giant across the nation, ac-

cording to the coalition of

unions representing them.

The employees — who in-

clude most staff aside from

doctors, mental health

workers or certain nurses —

have been working under an

expired national contract

since September, though

their local contracts are still

current.

The Service Employees

International Union-United

Healthcare Workers West —

which is the largest union in

acoalition covered by the

national contract — voted in

support of the strike, the Co-

Kaiser workers in state authorize strike

MENTAL HEALTH WORKERSwith Kaiser Permanente in San Francisco march during a strike in Decem-

ber. A separate coalition of unions representing Kaiser workers is now voting on whether to authorize a strike.

Justin SullivanGetty Images

The option of walking

out gives employee

unions more leverage

in contract talks with

the healthcare giant.

By James B. Cutchin

[SeeKaiser,C6]

Transit
authorities
statewide
have been
targeted
with lawsuits
alleging
that, among
other pri-
vacy viola-
tions, information from
toll-road transponders —
think FasTrak — is being
used to illegally market to
drivers.
Transit agencies have
taken the legal threat seri-
ously enough that they’ve
enlisted a Southern Cali-
fornia state senator to intro-
duce legislation giving them
retroactive immunity —
that is, a get-out-of-jail-free
card for any past misdeeds.
At stake is potentially
billions of dollars in fines.
And also your personal
information.
“The transit agencies are
apparently saying that
there have been so many
violations, if they don’t
receive retroactive protec-
tion, they could be wiped
out,” said Rosemary Sha-
han, president of Consum-
ers for Auto Reliability and
Safety, a Sacramento advo-
cacy group.
“This bill basically says
that all that bad stuff they
did, it’s now legal,” she told
me.
This is a complicated
issue, and the legislation,
Senate Bill 664, remains a
work in progress. But after
speaking with the bill’s
author, state Sen. Ben Allen
(D-Santa Monica), I’m
prepared to give him the
benefit of the doubt — even
though, as you’ll see, his
methods were less than
desirable.
“I’ve always been a pri-
vacy guy,” Allen told me,
clearly sensitive to charges
from consumer advocates
that he’s selling out people’s
personal data.
“I want to be helpful to
the transit agencies,” he
said. “That is the only rea-
son for my being involved
with this bill. I intend to
keep things really tight and
not screw around with
privacy concerns.”
California is interlaced
with toll roads and bridges.
The state’s largest network
of toll roads is in Orange
County, with more than
330,000 daily trips.
One element of Allen’s
bill is to address what he
calls “technical violations”
of existing privacy law —
toll-road operators sharing
data with one another as
drivers travel through dif-
ferent jurisdictions.
As many as seven law-
suits pending against tran-
sit agencies say this is il-
legal. That may indeed be
the case, at least as the law
is currently written.

Transit

agencies

trying

to pull a

fast one?

DAVID LAZARUS

[SeeLazarus,C4]

Health plans

found lacking

Short-term insurance

favored by President

Trump shortchanges

patients, Michael

Hiltzik writes. C

CBS-Viacom

together again?

The New York firms

are in the final stages

of reaching a merger

agreement, but details

are not ironclad. C

Stocks stumble

amid trade war

Investors head for safe

havens as anxiety

over the U.S.-China

dispute fuels a sharp

decline in markets. C