By: Health Insurance
Submitted: 2009-11-17 12:45:05 | Word Count: 1091
The board that governs the state employees' health insurance program is holding public hearings across West Virginia before it votes on whether to raise rates for its 200,000 members.
But board members aren't always showing up to hear feedback on the proposal.
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At the first two of the six public hearings, held by the Public Employees Insurance Agency Finance Board, dozens of angry state employees and retirees protested the rate increases, which they said amounted to pay cuts.
But fewer than half of the nine-member finance board made it to either hearing.
The board is proposing changes that would amount to a 4 percent premium increase for employees. The changes would also increase deductibles by $50 and raise the out-of-pocket maximums by $1,500 for those on the family plan.
So far, only four of its nine members have attended one of the two public hearings. On Monday in Charleston, four PEIA board members made it. On Tuesday in Beckley, only two showed, both who had also been to the first meeting.
Over the years, it's rare for many of the board members to make any given hearing, observers say. "To my knowledge there has never been every board member there at any of these," said Elaine Harris, who has been on the board since Gov. Cecil Underwood's administration.
Perry Bryant, a former board member, said he attended "virtually all" of the public hearings during his four years on the board. Bryant said he couldn't remember a recent meeting where more than half the board members showed up.
"There is not a requirement to have a quorum at the public hearings because it is not an official meeting," said Diane Holley-Brown, a PEIA spokeswoman.
When the finance board does have a regular meeting, such as one where they vote on raising rates or cutting premiums, there is apparently always a quorum.
The lack of participation at public hearings may only feed claims by union leaders that the finance board doesn't care what employees have to say.
Judy Hale, the president of the state chapter of the American Federation of Teachers, told the board as much at Monday's hearing in Charleston.
"You know we are all wasting our time here tonight," Hale said.
Bob Brown, the executive director of the West Virginia School Service Personnel Association, said it's folk wisdom that if someone has to swallow a frog there's no sense to talk about it too much.
"It's clear to us you're going to force us to swallow this frog," Brown said.
PEIA officials say the rate increase is needed to keep pace with rising medical costs.
Over the summer when the board was considering cuts to retiree subsidies for future hires, every board member attended at least one meeting, said board member Josh Sword, who also works for the state chapter of the American Federation of Teachers.Union leaders also say they'd at least like the board to hear what public employees are going through.
PEIA's Holley-Brown said an audiotape of the hearings is offered to all members ahead of the meeting in which they are expected to vote on the plan for the upcoming fiscal year.
"This is common practice for PEIA to ensure that the members are knowledgeable of the feedback received at all of the hearings," she said.
That isn't enough, said Dale Lee, the president of the West Virginia Education Association.
"I find that very disturbing because you certainly - even if you even listen to the transcripts - you can't feel the emotion of what the people are saying," Lee said.
Sword, who is the only board member other than chairman Robert Ferguson to attend both this week's hearings, said while the board members owe it to the public to attend, their presence might not matter because they would simply vote against the wishes of public employees anyway.
Earlier this year, when the board voted to eliminate the retirement subsidy for employees hired after the middle of next year, they did so after hearing hundreds of people speak against the proposal. Sword said not one person at the hearings spoke up for eliminating the subsidy."Why waste our time holding these public hearings if the administration just shrugs it off and the majority of the board says we are going to do what the administration wants us to do regardless of what the majority of public wants us to do," Sword said.
Bryant, the former board member who also heads the West Virginians for Affordable Health Care advocacy group, said he understands why board members don't attend. The crowds can be harsh. On Monday, one woman called PEIA director Ted Cheatham a "cold, heartless man."
There also is the question of whether the hearings help the board make its decision.
Bryant said one year he tried to get feedback from employees about whether they would prefer to see their premiums go up or their co-pays go up. Premium increases are spread out across the whole insured population, meaning everyone has to pay more. Co-pays, on the other hand, can steer people away from seeking health care and cost those who use it frequently. While some might consider that fair, others might think it punishes those who need help the most.
"I wanted to engage people in a constructive criticism about, 'We're likely to have to raise revenues from employees, would you prefer to have increases in co-pays or increases in premiums?'" he said.
During the six hearings that year, Bryant said he heard only one straight answer to his question.
"People say, 'We don't want anything [that raises rates].' And I said, 'Well, OK,' but that isn't going to give you the insights you really want," he recalled.
Bryant said it's difficult for unions to state a preference for higher co-pays or higher premiums because it could open them up to an attack from another union.
"As soon as someone does that the other side would blast them for that," Bryant said.
Bryant added, "So they're really not very constructive meetings."
