Waving signs such as “My family can’t afford $800 health insurance” and “Will work “4′ health insurance: state employee, five children,” Colorado state workers expressed outrage Oct. 3 over triple-digit increases in health insurance premiums scheduled for 2002.
According to a report in The Denver Post, Ellen Golombek of the Colorado AFL-CIO introduced speakers on the west steps of the state Capitol at a rally of state employees protesting the recently noted 176 percent increases in their health insurance rates. About 80 state workers also issued a warning to nongovernment workers during a rally on the steps of the state Capitol. State employees, including public-school teachers, construction workers, public hospital employees and law enforcement officers, will pay on the average 176 percent more for health insurance in 2002 because of rate increases by health plans and a cap on how much money the state can pay for each worker’s benefits.
For the first time, health insurers also will be allowed to charge more for health benefits to state workers in Pueblo County, where premiums will go up an average 236 percent and cost a family of four between $500 and $800 per month — the highest out-of-pocket cost for any state employee nationwide. Four plans — Cigna, Aetna, Anthem and Rocky Mountain HMO — will provide health benefits for Pueblo-area state workers next year.
State lawmakers are hurrying to put into law a $3 million relief package before the end of the legislature’s special session on Friday.
Rep. Abel Tapia, D-Pueblo, also is sponsoring a bill that would create a health benefits pilot program in Pueblo and surrounding areas during 2002. Insurers could bid on a low-cost program to provide health insurance to state workers, and, if it worked, it could be expanded statewide.
Legislators also lambasted state officials for negotiating a contract with health insurers that put large numbers of state employees in financial peril.
State officials said they had two choices: agree to the price increases in Pueblo, but make them separate from the rates of other state workers, or offer employees in southern Colorado a product with drastically decreased coverage.
By the time the state got price quotes back from HMOs in July, it was too late to scrap the contract and ask health plans to re-bid, according to Jeff Schutt, director of human resources for the state.
HMO executives said if they were forced to offer Pueblo the same rates as the rest of the state, they would be unable to compete elsewhere with plans that don’t operate in Pueblo. That’s because they are losing money in Pueblo due to high-cost doctors and hospitals, and high incidences of diabetes and other chronic disease.
Workers said they weren’t warned about price hikes until it was too late to renegotiate HMO contracts for next year.
Employees at the rally also questioned why the state, Colorado’s largest employer with 27,000 workers, couldn’t negotiate a better deal on health insurance.
Topics Colorado
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