Archive for the ‘Health Insurance’ Category
Lexington’s Urban County Government is dropping health insurance coverage for 556 employees of “outside agencies” — organizations that are affiliated with, but not directly run by, city government.
Based on 2008 spending, dropping employees of the 20 organizations from Lexington’s insurance plan would save the cash-strapped city $506,218 a year, the difference between what it took in and what it had to pay out.
Among the organizations that will be making new health insurance arrangements are the Fayette County Health Department, Kentucky League of Cities, Lexington Housing Authority, Lexington Convention & Visitors Bureau, Lexington Parking Authority and the Lexington Urban League.
“The satellite agencies had been paying only their premiums,” said Susan Straub, spokeswoman for Mayor Jim Newberry. “… They were not funding the full cost of their health care.”
Over the past three years, the city has shelled out $2.2 million to supplement the insurance premiums paid by the employees of outside agencies.
In late November, Newberry said the city might consider layoffs, pay cuts, furloughs and the elimination of city programs to stem an estimated shortfall of $12 million to $13 million. City government division directors were asked to propose ways to cut expenses by 5 percent.
The council approved cutting health insurance for outside groups on Dec. 8. In all, the city offers health insurance to 3,622 workers and retirees, whose health claims outpaced revenue by $8.5 million last year.
Most of the agencies will have until Dec. 31, 2010, to finish their new health care plans, but some — such as the Fayette County Health Department — will switch to new insurers within the next month.
Health Department Commissioner Melinda Rowe said city officials told her the agency should be covered by the state’s health insurance program. Instead, the department chose a plan offered by Bluegrass Family Health.
Still, the cost of premiums paid by the department could go up by more than $600,000 over two years, Rowe said.
Not providing health insurance to employees was never considered, she said.
“Obviously, we’re the health department; we have got to concentrate on our own employees and their wellness,” Rowe said.
P.G. Peeples, president of Lexington’s Urban League, said his organization’s insurance options are limited because it has only six employees. He hopes to band with United Way agencies or other Urban League offices to build the number of employees needed for a large bargaining pool.
“I’m disappointed they’re going to remove this option,” Peeples said. “I understand that they’re trying to do cost savings.”
How did the city wind up providing insurance benefits for agencies outside city government?
“For the most part, we don’t really know,” Straub said. “We inherited this situation, and the arrangements have apparently been in place for a number of years.”
Jan Isenhour, director of the Carnegie Center for Literacy, said the center’s budget initially came from the city, so its inclusion in the health pool seemed logical.
In 2003, the center became an “outside agency” and started taking over its own finances but remained in the city insurance group. The Carnegie Center hasn’t started pricing outside health policies; it has another year on the city’s plan.
Meanwhile, the city continues to look for other ways to shift expenses to outside agencies.
Ed Lane, councilman for Lexington’s 12th district, said the city might soon consider asking outside agencies to contribute money toward the upkeep of city office space they occupy.
“The recession puts a lot of strain on government to provide all the services necessary for the taxpayers, but it also gives us an opportunity to look at what are essential services and what are non-essential services … to try to maximize the efficiency of government as much as we can,” Lane said.
Keeping health insurance after a layoff without government assistance would eat up 72 cents of every dollar of unemployment benefits for average Kansas workers and their families.
And the expiration of such assistance in the federal stimulus act threatens to push millions of laid-off workers nationwide into the ranks of the uninsured.
Those are the conclusions of a new report by Families USA, a Washington-based nonprofit, nonpartisan group that advocates for health consumers.
The report, which will be released today in Washington, expresses concern over the expiration of a health-insurance benefit — funded by federal stimulus dollars — for workers laid off between March and December of this year.
Ordinarily, workers who leave a job can continue to receive coverage from their former employer’s insurance plan under a law known as “COBRA” — the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act.
But COBRA coverage is expensive because the displaced worker has to pay the full premium, including what had been the employer’s share of the cost.
Under the federal economic stimulus bill, the government agreed to pick up 65 percent of the cost of COBRA coverage for as much as nine months for workers displaced by the ongoing economic recession.
But eligibility expired Monday for the first workers to get the COBRA assistance, those who joined the program in March.
And, as the law is currently framed, workers laid off after Dec. 31 will not receive any government help with their COBRA costs.
An estimated 7 million laid-off workers nationwide took advantage of the COBRA-assistance offer.
The exact number of Kansans affected is not available. Federal and state labor, insurance and tax officials could not provide a state-by-state breakdown.
Cost to laid-off Kansans
Families USA analyzed how losing the government assistance will affect individual families.
According to its report, the average cost of insuring a family through COBRA is $369 a month with the government subsidy.
Without it, that cost rises to an average of $1,054 a month — a $685 difference.
The average unemployment benefit in Kansas is $1,465, meaning that without the COBRA subsidy, health insurance alone would consume 71.9 percent of an unemployed family’s income, Families USA calculated.
Ending the subsidy will mean “putting continued health coverage out of reach for most families,” Families USA concluded.
Congress is considering a bill to extend the COBRA subsidy, said Molly Haase, an aide to Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kan.
Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, has introduced Senate Bill 2730 to extend COBRA subsidy eligibility through June 20, 2010.
The bill also would reduce the unemployed worker’s co-payment from 35 percent to 25 percent and extend benefit eligibility from nine months to 15 months, Haase said.
The bill is before the Senate Finance Committee, she said.
Losing the government benefit would make it extremely difficult — in many cases impossible — for laid-off Kansans to continue to provide health coverage for their families, said Bob Brewer, Midwest director for the Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace.
In Kansas, layoffs of SPEEA’s workers didn’t start until October, so its members will continue to receive benefits for several more months, Brewer said.
However, he added that he expects more layoffs in early 2010 at Boeing and Spirit AeroSystems, and he hopes the COBRA subsidy will be reinstated in time for those workers to continue coverage.
Clinics already burdened
An increase in uninsured Kansans would put more pressure on already heavily burdened low-cost clinics in Wichita.
Dave Sanford, executive director of GraceMed in Wichita, said his clinic is already seeing a rise in patients that is outstripping its ability to get enough providers to serve them.
Even with COBRA subsidies available, many displaced workers are “basically rolling the dice, hoping they don’t have a catastrophic problem until they get called back or they get another job,” he said.
For now, GraceMed is dealing with the crunch by setting appointment times for people with more urgent health problems and extending the wait to get an appointment for routine care, Sanford said.
The clinic also is trying to find doctors willing to moonlight at the clinic in the evenings and on weekends, he said.
People who find their COBRA expiring can comparison shop to try to find a lower-cost policy, said Bob Hanson of the state Insurance Department.
The department maintains a list of insurers licensed to sell medical coverage in Kansas at www.ksinsurance.org/consumers/majmed.htm.
The department also is warning consumers to be wary of companies marketing health plans that seem unrealistically cheap, Hanson said.
“Many companies writing very limited health policies, or noninsurance discount plans, are finding a market for those desperate for low-cost insurance,” Hanson said.
Most Arizonans think the U.S. health-care system needs revamping even though the majority are satisfied with the health insurance they have, according to a Cronkite/Eight Poll.
Fifty percent of those surveyed said the health-care system needs major changes and 31 percent said minor changes would do, while 12 percent said the system is fine as is.
Bruce Merrill, a retired Arizona State University professor who directs the poll, said the response mirrors what people are saying about health-care reform across the country.
“Most people know the system is broken and needs changes,” he said.
State Rep. Kyrsten Sinema, D-Phoenix, said the results show that people want Congress to act.
“The biggest problem is we don’t have enough people with health care,” said Sinema, who serves on a group of state lawmakers advising the Obama administration on the issue.
Seventy-eight percent of respondents said they are very satisfied or generally satisfied with their health insurance, while 15 percent were somewhat dissatisfied or very dissatisfied. Seven percent had no opinion.
The president has made overhauling health care his administration’s chief focus. However, the Senate Finance Committee rejected a key part of that plan: having the government offer health insurance.
Asked about that proposal, often referred to as a public option, 57 percent of poll respondents said they don’t have enough information to form an opinion. Twenty-five percent said they favor a public option, and 18 percent said they oppose it.
Jon Ford, associate director of communication for St. Luke’s Health Initiatives, said many people feel disconnected from the health-care system and don’t understand it. Without a strong understanding of the issues, it’s difficult to have an informed discussion, he said.
“One of the major issues we deal with is how to engage people constructively without it turning into ‘pulling the plug on grandma,’” he said.
Fifty-three percent of respondents said they disapprove of Obama’s handling of health-care reform, while 38 percent said they approve. Nine percent didn’t have an opinion.
The poll, conducted by ASU’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication and Eight/KAET, involved 724 registered Arizona voters. It has a sampling error of plus or minus 3.6 percentage points.
The Cronkite School operates the Cronkite News Service.The poll also found that:
- Fewer Arizonans now support Gov. Jan Brewer’s push for a temporary sales tax increase to help bridge the state’s budget deficit. Fifty-one percent favored the plan and 41 percent opposed it, while 8 percent didn’t have an opinion. In April, the poll found 60 percent in favor and 35 percent opposed.
- Thirty-seven percent said they approve and 37 percent said they disapprove of the job Brewer is doing as governor. Twenty-six percent didn’t have an opinion.
Some results from the Cronkite/Eight Poll
Some questions and results from the Cronkite/Eight Poll:
Q. Which of these positions about our current health-care system comes closest to your own?
- I am basically happy with our current system and don’t think it needs to be changed: 12 percent
- I think we could make some minor changes to the system: 31 percent
- I think the health-care system needs major changes: 50 percent
- I don’t have an opinion at this time about what needs to be done: 7 percent
Q. (For those with insurance): How satisfied are you with the health insurance you have?
- Very satisfied: 45 percent
- Generally satisfied: 33 percent
- Somewhat dissatisfied: 10 percent
- Very dissatisfied: 5 percent
- Don’t know/no opinion: 7 percent
Q. Do you favor or oppose inwcluding a public option in a health-care reform bill?
- Favor: 25 percent
- Oppose: 18 percent
- Don’t have enough information to have an opinion: 57 percent