| Employees
Dissatisfied with Health Plan
by Joe Mott
University housekeeping manager Cathy Knight
has to pay nearly $214 every two weeks for
her family coverage under the North Carolina
State Health Plan. That's 15 percent out
of her pay check for a plan many state employees—from
grounds workers to teachers—aren't
happy with.
"One year it's one thing,” said Knight. “One
year it's going up some more, so it's still
going up."
But the premiums weren't always going up.
Laurie Charest is the associate vice chancellor
for human resources. She says during better
fiscal times the plan had amassed a large
reserve fund. But, as the state economy began
to slide, instead of raising health insurance
rates to workers, plan administrators began
dipping into the reserve.
“Well the reserve dropped to nothing
then went below zero,” said Charest. “So
we knew they had to do one of two things:
they had to put more money into the plan…”
Or they had to raise premiums. But administrators
say even that won't keep the plan out of
the red without other fundamental changes.
Jack Walker says a large part of the problem
is in the lifestyles of the population. People’s
habits have created some daunting statistics.
“Changing your attitude, or his attitude—sometimes
it takes a crisis to get it done,” said
Walker.
Many are calling the insurance situation
a crisis. Just five years ago 64 percent
of State Health Plan members were considered
healthy, meaning they had no long term health
problems. That figure fell six points in
2003 to 58 percent. The number is expected
to drop to 51 percent in the next five years,
and for every 1 percent decline in healthy
plan members, it costs the state $68 million
in expenses. So Walker is working on some
unconventional methods to fight the trends.
“So the direction we’re going
today is: how do we help the people who are
currently healthy stay healthy tomorrow?” said
Walker.
Walker used the analogy of a car. Imagine
if the state promised to repair all auto
defects for free. But no one ever changed
the oil, checked the tires, or even took
their cars in for a tune-up. Then when the
car breaks down, everyone expects the state
to fix it for free.
Walker says this type of program obviously
wouldn't work. So it gives employees an important
role to play in keeping costs down.
And he's not alone. N.C. Sen. Tony Rand,
D-Cumberland, has a plan to reward people
for keeping themselves out of high risk categories.
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