Pact Offers Policies to Mexican Workers in U.S. : Workplace: The agreement allows those working legally here to buy low-cost health insurance for their dependents at home.

Mexican citizens working legally in United States will be able to obtain health insurance for their dependents at home under an agreement negotiated with the Mexican government by three U.S.-based labor unions and an agricultural employers association.

Previously, Mexican families whose wage earners worked in the United States were not able to receive benefits through the Mexican social security system. About 40 million people in Mexico are without health insurance for that reason, Israel Sumano of the Fresno office of the Mexican Social Security Institute said Thursday.

The program is open to Mexicans in this country on work permits or U.S. citizens with families living in Mexico. The health plan would not cover the workers themselves unless they were able to travel back to Mexico to receive care, and the estimated 5.5 million undocumented workers in the United States are not eligible.

Nevertheless, a Mexican government official said he believes that up to 10 million people of Mexican descent working on U.S. farms and in hotels, restaurants and other industries here would be eligible for the program.

The plan would cost $320 to $380 a year--or about a sixth of the cost of premiums for dependent care in the United States--and covers office visits, prescriptions and hospital stays. Although the cost is relatively low by U.S. standards, some observers still questioned whether many workers could afford it without help from their employers in paying the cost.

Cecelia Ruiz, director of benefits programs for the United Farm Workers union, said the program is patterned after one negotiated by UFW President Cesar Chavez and Mexican President Carlos Salinas de Gortari.

“The potential of it is large, but many are not buying it because they can’t afford it,” Ruiz said. “I don’t think the employer is going to pay for it out of his own pocket.”

The employer groups involved in the agreement made no specific promises that employers would help with the cost.

Because of its relatively low cost, the program could prove especially attractive to small employers and farm labor contractors who frequently offer no health insurance, said William Goodrich, president of the United Agribusiness League in Irvine, which is the first employer association to agree to offer the program to its members. The league represents 10,000 employers and grower associations in California, Arizona, Oregon and Florida.

About 100,000 of the 450,000 Latino agricultural workers in California have families in Mexico they may want to insure, he said.

Goodrich said he is hoping to sign as many as 10,000 of the 45,000 workers his members employ by the end of 1992. The league is negotiating with some prominent Latino spokespeople to promote the program, he said.