Bill To Restrict Health Care Bargaining

A bill that would restrict the ability of educators to bargain collectively over their health care coverage is "an attack on school district employees and their hard-earned, bargained benefits," a WEAC representative told a legislative committee Wednesday (May 30, 2007).

"Educators deserve fair compensation," WEAC Government Relations Specialist Diane Craney said in written testimony submitted to the Assembly Committee on Labor and Industry. "There is a perception on the part of some that school district employees do not pay for their health insurance. The truth is that teachers pay for every cent of their benefits. They have sacrificed salary increases in exchange for health insurance for their families."

Assembly Bill 110 prohibits bargaining over the selection of a health care coverage plan if the employer offers to enroll its employees in the local government employers’ state plan. It also provides that any employer may unilaterally change its health care coverage provider if the benefits remain substantially the same.

"To allow school districts to unilaterally move employees into the state plan, or a substantially similar plan, is an assault on collective bargaining rights," Craney wrote.

Under the Qualified Economic Offer law, she wrote, changes in health insurance costs are balanced with salary adjustments.

"If benefit costs rise, salaries fall. The total cost to the school district does not change. As a result, teachers, and not taxpayers, have carried the cost of increased health care through salary adjustments ranging from small raises to salary rollbacks," she wrote.

"Teachers have the greatest incentive to support plans that provide better benefits at lower costs. Teachers would be harming themselves if they chose expensive plans, unless those plans actually provided greater value for the dollar."

AB 110 does not address the core issue of rising health care costs, she wrote.

"Rapidly rising health care costs for everyone have created a health care cost crisis. The solution does not lie in attacks on teachers’ rights to bargain benefits," she wrote.

Craney noted that WEAC members have agreed to many cost-saving modifications to their health insurance plans in order to lower costs.

• 91% of educators have moved to three-tiered drug cards, up from 43% just two years ago. Three-tiered drug cards increase out-of-pocket expenditures for high-cost drugs while steering participants to lower-cost generic drugs.
• 67% of educators have moved to a Point of Service plan that provides the most cost-effective coverage within a given service area.
• In just the last four years, 47% of educators adopted the new Partners in Health “Wellness” program to help reduce preventable illnesses, which in turn lowers costs for care and treatment.

In addition, she wrote, WEAC and the WEA Trust are national leaders in promoting health care reform. The New Wisconsin Idea is an innovative four-step plan for tackling the state’s health care cost crisis. Its four reforms together would fundamentally alter the state’s health care delivery and financing systems, thereby reducing costs and improving the quality of health care in Wisconsin, she wrote. "If enacted, these reforms would make more affordable health care available to every resident of the state."

The New Wisconsin Idea includes:

• Creating a large purchasing pool to buy prescription drugs based on effectiveness.
• Developing a centralized clearinghouse for paying claims and collecting medical data.
• Establishing transparency in health care costs; that is, creating a system where a patient knows how much a medical service costs and what the health plan will reimburse.
• Making health care accessible and affordable by having the state provide preventive and catastrophic care to all through centers of excellence.

"Wisconsin’s goal should be good health care for everyone," Craney wrote. "AB 110 does not address the true issue of rising health care costs. WEAC encourages legislators to deal with the underlying health care costs, rather than attempt to take away collective bargaining rights. Good health care, like great schools, benefits everyone."

Posted May 30, 2007