Is Union-affiliated Insurance Bankrupting School Districts through Collective Bargaining?
I hope everyone remembers the opposition to Governor Sandoval's budget, especially from the powerful Education Unions in Nevada (CCEA) and their national counterparts? During the same type of debate in Wisconsin, Governor Scott Walker was vilified, demonized and generally denigrated by all the Union thugs, not only those in the Education sector. If one was to believe the hype those thugs were peddling, not continuing with the collective bargaining agreements with the public sector employees would deal a "death-blow" to the state's finances! That has proved to be hardly the case at all. In fact, the opposite is true. The following article by Byron York from the Washington Examiner illustrates the behind the scenes dealing that was going on between the Union leadership and their political cronies. http://washingtonexaminer.com/politics/2011/07/wisconsin-schools-buck-union-cut-health-costs.
If what was happening in Wisconsin is also happening here, we need to take appropriate action to remove ANY elected official who supports this, even tacitly! This is tantamount to money laundering, the Unions contribute heavily to Democrat politicians who in turn negotiate "sweetheart" or no-bid insurance contracts with the Insurer for the Teachers, - in Wisconsin, this resulted in highly over-inflated premiums for insurance coverage that were "coerced" into acceptance through the collective bargaining system. Since both sides were playing with OPM (Other People's Money - worse in this case - it's Taxpayers' money) what meaningful "negotiations" were taking place, if any? This is at the very least a complete conflict of interest for the unions!
Apparently, the CCSD has already looked at the practice of only having a captive insurer, and is moving toward replacing the Teachers' Health Trust with a commercial insurer. It will be fought tooth and nail by the Union, CCEA, but the ultimate solution should prove to expose all the details about the costs involved with providing the insurance to their members. Also, it should be noted that this situation has existed for the past 28 years, how much money would that amount to over that many years? How much would the costs have been if compared to using commercial insurers in a competitive bidding situation? Also, how much other money could be cut from the CCSD budget that is currently lining the pockets of Union officials?
This article is posted on the Health Trust Website, as part of their campaign, so people are becoming aware of the situation. http://www.ktnv.com/news/local/126721548.html
For reference purposes, here is the language directly from the Teachers Health Trust site, found under "History" Tab:
"The CCEA is the exclusive bargaining agent for licensed employees and the Teachers Health Trust is the exclusive employee welfare benefit carrier for these employees. The CCEA bargains with the District for funds to provide the basic individual benefits to licensed employees. The process of payroll deduction is provided to licensed employees to pay for additional benefits such as dependent health coverage."
If we look at the latest budget revision summary, you will find this entry on the recommended table:
For those of you who might want to actually see the source for the following numbers, here ya go!
http://ccsd.net/news/attachments/20110705-947871961.pdf
If $38.7 Million is 20 % of the employees Health Insurance cost, the total would be 5 X that or $193.5 Million. Now the question is , was that for Teachers' Health Trust or the new commercial insurer?