Health Insurance
Action Alert
As you are aware, Governor
Patrick is proposing an increase in state/higher education employee health
insurance costs in his FY09 budget.
Please
be advised that Local 1776 and Council 93 are strongly opposed to any increase
in employee health insurance costs and will be working aggressively with other
public employee unions to defeat this proposal in the legislature. The
following is a brief summary of the governor's plan.
Under
the governor's proposal, employees earning an annual salary of $35,000 or less
would see no increase in their share of premium costs. However, those earning
above $35,000 per year would see their percentage of premium costs increased as
follows:
Workers earning $35,000 to $50,000 would have their
premium share increased from 15% to 20%.
Workers earning $50,000 or above would have their
premium share increased from 15% to 25%.
The governor's plan eliminates the system of having
all employees hired after June 30, 2003 paying 20% of premiums and applies his
new tiered system to all state employees regardless of their date of hire.
A
key component of our strategy is generating phone calls, e-mails and letters
from union members. We are urging all members to contact state representatives
and senators to voice their opposition to the governor's plan and to ask these
elected officials to opposition to the House Speaker, Senate President and
chairs of the House and
You
can find all the appropriate contact information for these representatives and
senators on the following link: http://www.mass.gov/legis/citytown.htm. Or call the Local 1776
office at 545-2831 and asked to be transferred to your legislator.
Members
should begin by calling members of the House as that branch will be the first
to act on the governor's proposed budget.
The
following are some key points that should be incorporated into your comments
and e-mails/letters:
State employee health insurance costs have
increased steadily over the past several years. While the percentage of our
premium contributions has remained relatively steady at 15% to 20%, our costs
have increased just as state costs have increased. Therefore, just because our
premium split does not increase that doesn't mean that we have not been
impacted by rising health care costs.
Our co-payments for office visits and prescription
drugs have risen dramatically and in many instances, are higher than those
receiving coverage through private sector jobs.
While the percentage increases proposed by the
governor range from 5% to 10%, these increases translate into out-of-pocket
increases of 33% - 67% depending on the level of the percentage increase.
Increasing health care costs for a person based on
their annual income is a fundamentally unfair approach. For instance, a single
parent who receives an increase is more drastically affected than a worker
receiving the same increase and earning the same salary in a two-income family.
Other factors, such as varying costs of housing in different parts of the
state, also make this approach unfair.
While
the governor's proposal is already part of his budget, don't be afraid to call
his office to express your disappointment. Let him know that your union
supported his candidacy over that of his Republican opponent in part because we
were tired of fighting attempts by preceding Republican Administrations to
place the burden of rising health care costs on the backs of working men and
women and their families. The phone number to the Governor's office is
888-870-7770(toll free in state) or 617-725-4005. You can also send an e-mail
to the governor at the following link:
http://www.mass.gov/?pageID=gov3utilities&sid=Agov3&U=Agov3_contact_us
Your
participation is this campaign is vital to our efforts to defeat this proposal.
Please do your part and rest assured that your union will be doing everything
it can to maintain the current premium structure. Also, ask your family
members, friends and neighbors to support us by contacting their legislators as
well.