Executive Director of municipal workers union appointed to Connecticut Healthcare Partnership Working Group to review benefits of "pooling" legislation
HARTFORD—Since 1991, public service workers united in CSEA/SEIU Local 2001 have called on Connecticut lawmakers to bring municipal employees into the State's health care plan in order to increase purchasing power and lower overall costs. Members are welcoming Friday's announcement that Executive Director Robert Rinker has been appointed to the Connecticut Healthcare Partnership Working Group to review new legislation based on this "pooling" concept.
"We have advocated for the kind of model the Partnership would establish here in Connecticut for seventeen years" Rinker said after House Majority Leader Chris Donovan (D-Meriden) announced the Working Group's membership. "This plan is needed now more than ever to provide property tax relief for local towns strained by skyrocketing health insurance costs" he continued. "We're thrilled to see legislative leadership take this important step forward."
Donovan introduced the Connecticut Healthcare Partnership last November, citing potential taxpayer savings of hundreds of millions of dollars by creating a larger "pool" of insured lives. Twenty-four other states currently open access to a single health plan to municipal employees, and have reduced administrative costs, cut premium taxes, and eliminated carrier charges for cities, towns, and public school districts. Massachusetts passed similar legislation last year after determining its municipal health insurance costs had been increasing an average of 13% each year since the start of the decade.
"Quality healthcare for less is in everyone's interest" Carol Parker, a paraprofessional who has worked in Stafford Public Schools for twenty years, said hopefully of the proposal's legislative prospects. "Every time we negotiate a raise, it is eaten by healthcare premiums, which is why I have to work a second job after school every day to have enough to pay for insurance" she added. "And if these savings can be used to offset property tax increases, than I can't imagine why anyone would be against it" Parker, the co-president of the union's chapter representing paraeducators in the school district, concluded.
"This plan will deliver the kind of results for Connecticut's bloated healthcare system and run-away property taxes that elected leaders from both parties should embrace" Rinker continued. "We're looking to elected officials like Comptroller Nancy Wyman, who we'll be working with to implement it, to exercise real leadership on securing quality healthcare for Connecticut's public service workers and their families" he concluded.
CSEA/SEIU Local 2001 represents 25,000 active and retired public sector workers across Connecticut, and is an affiliate of SEIU, the nation’s second largest public employees union. Visit www.csea-ct.com online for more information on the "working families issues" its members are advocating for during the General Assembly's 2008 Session.