Super news: A new plan for hospitality workers without health care.

Everyone who's eaten out knows the feeling: order envy.

You think you nailed it with the enchilada special, and then someone else's fish tacos appear and you're like, Blew that one.

I felt something similar, journalistically speaking, this week.

The same issue in which my piece on the biggest epicurean stories of the last six months, "The five top Monterey County food-and-drink stories for the first half of 2017," had a restaurant-relevant story that—hopefully—eclipses them all.

The gist is this, as Weekly Staff Writer Pam Marino reports: 

A year ago, Chris Campisi, owner of Campisi Financial in downtown Monterey, approached the Monterey County Hospitality Association about forming a health and welfare trust to bring affordable health insurance to its 250 association members, representing approximately 23,000 hospitality workers.

Teddy Balestreri, chair of the hospitality association, says the plan “seemed too good to be true,” but the more board members studied it, the more they realized the “huge benefit” it would bring to small business owners and workers, many of whom struggle to meet expenses in a region with a high cost of living.

It will require buy-in from employers and employees to work, but if it does, a formerly vulnerable local work force—and one our tourism and restaurant industries depend on mightily—will have its health care in a much more secure place.

Get the full story with "Group Thinking: Hospitality industry bands together to offer health insurance to its workforce."