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staff contract negotiations stalled over health plan changes

7/4/2011: Dennis Thompson of the Statesman Journal has an analysis. (He also runs the excellent State Workers Blog.) The sticking point is Kitzhaber wants a 5% contribution towards premiums (apparently w/ no means test!) plus this:

Under the Health Engagement Model, all workers would undergo a health assessment and then be required to take steps to reduce whatever health risks are detected.

Such a plan won’t work unless there are consequences for not following through, however. Why cut down on the potato chips and beer if you won’t pay any penalty?

A PEBB subcommittee looking at the model finally came to the conclusion that the easiest way to create some sort of penalty would be to assess surcharges against people who either don’t participate in the program or fail to act.

The subcommittee presented their findings to the full PEBB board last month, proposing a surcharge of $30 for single employees and $45 for employees with families.

The union argues they’ve already paid the insurance pickup via years of lower wages and now mandatory furloughs. The 5% pickup and the HEM fee (if you don’t modify your behavior) will be about $1000 a year. Add in the furloughs, and the lowest paid workers – most likely to smoke – are going to lose a large % of income under the state’s proposal.

How are they going to handle medical marijuana users? While PEBB will not pay the $200 marijuana card fee, they will pay for the doctor’s visit to get qualified. And also presumably waive the HEM fee, since the grass is medically approved. But cigarette smokers with a family will have to pay an annual $540 HEM fee.

So the end result of Dr. Kitzhaber’s bargaining position with SEIU will be a large decrease in the price of pot smoking relative to cigarette smoking for state employees. I’m no economist, but the substitution effect may get interesting.

4 Comments

  1. Anonymous 07/04/2011

    “Health Engagement Model”? A mandatory “health assessment”? Good grief, if you don’t follow their orders — Take those beta blockers, you’re pre-hypertensive! You missed your semi-decadal colonoscopy! You forgot to take your Viagra! — you have to pay a penalty?

    What’s next, mandatory “Mental Health Assessment” followed by Treatment?

    And we thought mandatory Cultural Competency was bad!

  2. Anonymous 07/04/2011

    I hope to see lawsuits over an HEM.

  3. Anonymous 07/05/2011

    When will the managers around here start taking cuts? Janitors and food service workers are getting screwed as is. How about evening out the sacrifice and having management pay up too?? I’m sure the Chancellor’s cut alone is enough to fund raises for lower wage workers.

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