Cash-Strapped Governments Turning Own Workers Into Public Health Consumers

Summary

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Strapped for cash, many states are reducing their own employees' access to health benefits by relegating them to part-time or temporary status, or increasing their contributions to a point where they sometimes become unaffordable. In Texas, 15 of the 20 employers named in the state's Health and Human Services Commission report of employers identified by individuals enrolling in the Children's Health Insurance Program were public employers, mostly school districts. In July, Ohio increased state employee health plan contributions to 15% of premiums from 10% because the state, like many other states, had significant concerns about the state budget, according to Nan Neff, benefits administrator in Columbus. According to the Massachusetts list, 1,110 city of Boston employees were receiving public health assistance. The city has 17,000 active employees and about 12,000 retired employees enrolled in its health plan, according to Dennis DiMarzio, COO, city of Boston.

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Extract

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Cash-Strapped Governments Turning Own Workers Into Public Health Consumers

WHILE STATE LAWMAKERS target private employers for not providing health care coverage, a similar issue may be brewing in many of their own back yards.

In addition to being taxed by having to provide public health assistance to a growing number of working poor, government budgets are also being squeezed by their own employees' escalating health care costs, forcing them to shift more of the expense onto those employees. Those employees, in some...

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