home | current news stories

Councilors at the March 10 meeting watch a slide show summarizing our union's efforts to obtain and protect health care benefits for state employees. Members recognized that they have paid for the benefit through suppressed pay rates.

SEA Members United Against Health Care Cost Shifting

Every working family in New Hampshire should be able to rely on affordable, quality health care.

Like educating our children or providing for our elderly citizens, fostering a healthy society is a measure of our civilization.

SEA members recognize a crisis in health care in New Hampshire, and they want to be partners in both reducing costs and expanding coverage to the uninsured and underinsured.

They are standing strong as they resist efforts to shift - not actually reduce - rising health care costs. 

 Industry Standard

When our union and the state first negotiated full health coverage for employees and their families nearly 30 years ago, the plan was  standard.  That our benefits are now stronger than what many employees receive is an indictment of our health system. Those inadequate plans should not be a benchmark of good policy or practice.

SEA members recognize they must help break a vicious cycle of cost shifting that has stretched the system nearly to the breaking point.

Our members look at the Wal-Mart model of cheap goods, poorly paid labor, and benefits so inadequate that many of the huge retailer's employees are eligible for Medicaid. Moving in that direction would force state employees into a race to the bottom. It has no appeal for SEA members who recognize that working people are entitled to a decent standard of living.  Because many of Wal-Mart's employees and their families are eligible for Medicaid or Healthy Kids, taxpayers actually subsidize one of the more profitable corporations in the world.

 Expanded Coverage

We want to continue to work with our community partners and allies to again make our level of benefits the standard for all working families.

As reported during the March 3 Bargaining Senate and Council meeting, the SEA Master Bargaining Team has rejected one state proposal for health care givebacks.

During the March 10 Council meeting, members listened to a New Hampshire for Health Care presentation and reviewed our union's history of collective bargaining.

 A Vicious Cycle

SEA President Gary Smith charted the cost-shifting cycle.

Although the endless spiral has no discernable starting point, he described the state, through Medicaid, reimbursing health providers only $800 for a $1,000 procedure.

Health care providers can't afford to swallow the loss, so they shift the cost to insurance companies. If the patient is covered, providers get $1,200  in insurance reimbursements for that same $1,000 procedure . These carriers then shift the cost to employers in the form of higher insurance premiums, after tacking on a generous profit for themselves.

Employers, in turn, shift the higher premium costs to employees or stop offering coverage. The uninsured often resort to hospital emergency rooms, the most expensive form of care.

 Solid Research

Two recent studies document the problems described by Smith and in the presentation by New Hampshire for Health Care.

A report by the Endowment for Health documents that cost shifting and the loss of health coverage is undermining the health system in New Hampshire.

A Harvard University study found that medical expenses caused half of personal bankruptcies.

SEA President Gary Smith charts the vicious cycle of cost shifting that has resulted in higher health care costs and an ever shrinking pool of insured consumers. SEA works with community partners, including New Hampshire for Health Care, toward the goal of affordable care for as many people as possible.

A fact finder's report negated by then-Gov. Craig Benson nearly two years ago addressed cost shifting when the state proposed premium sharing and increased co-pays for prescription medicines.

"However, simply shifting costs to the employees will not solve, or alleviate, the problem," wrote Allan McCausland, the fact finder who authored the report.

 Negotiations Continue

Negotiations with the state continue. Although specific proposals cannot be made public, our team and membership resist "zero sum bargaining." This concept references health care givebacks that wipe out pay increases.

Without the modest cost-of-living increases recommended by the fact finder, we have continued to lag behind both the inflation rate and pay increases in the private sector.

"State employees face the same household budget dilemmas as all the other citizens of our State," the fact finder wrote.

Watch this Web site, SEA News, bargaining bulletins, and e-mail for any new developments in collective bargaining.