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| 7/21/2010 12:30:00 PM Email this article • Print this article | |
Firefighters fight Tompkins County health insurance consortium
Bill Chaisson
North Reporter
The Greater Tompkins County Health Insurance Consortium seems set to submit an amended application to New York State on Thursday, July 22, for a certificate of operation.
The amendments to the application concern the required size of reserve accounts and union representation on the consortium board.
The New York State Insurance Department had been insisting that the GTCHIC put aside a 17-percent reserve fund in order to pay claims, should the consortium be terminated for some reason. This week, though, the NYSID agreed to the GTCHIC request to lower the amount to 12 percent of its total capitalization, or $1.22 million, a reduction of $1 million. Don Barber, the chair of the consortium board, referred to the new number as "an achievable quantity."
The amended application also includes the "adjusted role of labor on the board," according to Barber. After negotiations with union representatives, the number of labor unionists on the board has been increased.
A recent public flare-up between the firefighters' union and the City of Ithaca will not affect the submission of the amended application. Neither Barber nor Greg Stevenson, the president of the firefighters' union, believed it would alter the schedule of the formation of the consortium.
Stevenson said that the firefighters' difference was not with the GTCHIC, but with their employer, the City of Ithaca.
"The city for some time has been working toward getting health insurance from the consortium," Stevenson said. "But that's a collective bargaining point; we've told them that there can be no unilateral changes. We need for it to be a negotiation between two parties."
The firefighters do not have any confidence in promises from the GTCHIC that health care benefits will not be reduced when the consortium takes over the management of them.
"It's easy for people to say there will be no change, but it is harder to assure that," Stevenson said. "We prefer a contract, but we have no contracted agreement with the consortium. Any unilateral move [on the part of the city] could be a step toward reduction of benefits.
"POMCO actually scored two-hundredths of a point greater than Blue Cross/Blue Shield in a survey done for the consortium," he added, "but the steering committee decided to recommend Excellus Blue Cross/Blue Shield instead because of subscribers' familiarity with how Excellus operates."
Stevenson expressed concern that if the consortium decided to change from Excellus to the POMCO Group in the future that doctors that union members were accustomed to would not be part of the new network.
"We want our contractual rights honored," he said.
Stevenson expressed a general uneasiness with the fact that the GTCHIC is the first health insurance consortium founded under Article 47 of New York State Insurance Law. He was not impressed by some of the legal advice he had witnessed during his close observation of the process of formation.
"[The law firm] Hancock and Estabrook said that it was illegal for unions to participate on consortium boards," he said. "Obviously that was wrong."
Barber said that Stevenson, a former Tompkins County legislator who represented Newfield and part of Enfield, had been present during legislature meetings where the consortium was discussed over the last four years, and he had also attended every consortium board meeting, but had not participated in any of the discussions.
"The CSEA (Civil Service Employees Association) legal staff has done a lot of work (on labor union representation on the consortium board)," said Barber. "So the other unions will likely go along."
The CSEA represents by far the largest number of employees in the county government and in the municipalities of the county.
"We will have a simple majority when the CSEA signs," noted Barber.
After the amended application is submitted on Thursday, Barber hopes to receive a conditional certificate from New York state within two weeks.
"We don't anticipate any pushback from the state insurance department," said Barber. "We have complied with all the state regulations."
In order to get a permanent certificate for the GTCHIC, all the member municipalities will then have to write checks to raise the required $1.22 million reserve fund.
"We formed the consortium under Article 47," said Barber, who is also the supervisor for the Town of Caroline, "because it is the only venue that allows for smaller and large municipalities to join together. The city [of Ithaca] made a sacrifice, but this gives them a larger pool and therefore reduces their risk."
The fact that a state budget has not yet been passed has one effect on the formation of the consortium: Tompkins County is presently short of liquid assets because the state has missed a number of payments to the counties.
"This reserve appears to be within our grasp," Barber said in formal written statement released on Monday, "as some of the smaller municipalities are coming forward to make up the reserve gap of the larger ones. This action shows the commitment and support to this inter-municipal effort by all 13 of its members."
At the June meeting of the Ulysses town council supervisor Roxanne Marino indicated that the town was prepared to contribute more than its share.
"We hope that this consortium concept is successful," said Stevenson.
He is currently at the negotiating table with representatives from the City of Ithaca, talking through many topics, which he expects will include health care benefits.
"We don't see that the city - our employer - is saving anything. They say it will stabilize their costs. We don't see much to gain; it won't change our costs. It's nice that they're being civic minded to the rest of the county."
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