Leaders of the House and Senate say the Hawaii State Teachers Association may have the votes to get its union health plan bill to the floor, but doubt there is support to pass the measure despite the political consequences. Health plan bill
will die despite union
pressure, lawmakers sayThe HSTA is backing an effort
to get the bill to the legislative floorBy Bruce Dunford
Associated PressHSTA President Karen Ginoza confirmed yesterday that the union is backing an effort to revive the bill allowing public employee unions to set up a voluntary employees beneficiary association trust to operate a health plan.
She declined to give details on the legislative strategy. It takes at least 17 votes in the 51-member House and at least nine votes in the 25-member Senate to recall bills from a committee.
The vote on the recall effort and, if successful, on the bills could be key in the union's pending endorsements in a year all 76 legislative seats are up for election.
The union also plans a rally by teachers at the Capitol next week, both to support the VEBA bill and to mark the anniversary of last year's three-week teachers strike.
Ginoza said a VEBA trust will allow the union to offer its 13,000 members better and less expensive health insurance coverage than under the state's health plan.
The Senate bill is in the Labor and Tourism and Intergovernmental Affairs committees, where it has had no hearing. The House bill had a hearing in the Health Committee where it remains.
A law passed last year returned the public employee health plan to a single state-run system after 17 years of allowing the unions to set up their own plans.
The legislative auditor said in 1999 that if the state continued that system, providing public employees health insurance would cost taxpayers more than $1 billion a year by 2013.
Because the union plans covered younger and healthier active workers, they could negotiate with insurance carriers for better benefit packages at lower cost than the state plan, which was stuck covering higher-risk state and county retirees and spouses who pay no premiums.
In passing the 2001 law, lawmakers noted the inequity was compounded when unions were refunded for the overpayment of premiums but did not return the money to the state.
That situation prompted Attorney General Earl Anzai to file a lawsuit last month against the Hawaii Government Employees Association and United Public Workers for resisting a state audit of their state-funded health and dental plans.
Ginoza said unlike the previous union-run plans, the VEBA trust plans follow federal laws that require annual reports "with a lot of sunshine" so there is no question about the funds.
Unlike the single state-run plan, a VEBA trust creates a smaller pool of members, allowing for more competition among insurance carriers and better health benefits, said Ginoza, who insisted it would not cost taxpayers any more.
"We cannot pay our teachers wages comparable to the mainland, so to stay competitive we must offer the best possible benefits," she said.
House Speaker Calvin Say (D, Palolo Valley-Kaimuki) said he has asked the Democratic majority to oppose the recall.
"The reason is, I think we should give the (state) employees trust fund an opportunity to work out the different plans," he said. "Because of some of the high-profile incidents that have occurred with other public employee unions, we should walk very carefully at this point."
UPW State Director Gary Rodrigues is accused in federal court of diverting health and dental plan money for his own use and of accepting kickbacks from one of the benefit plan providers.
Senate Vice President Colleen Hanabusa (D, Nanakuli-Waianae-Makaha), said she thinks the teachers do not understand the health plan issue.
"This bill they are trying to pull would apply to everyone, including HGEA and UPW, the very ones who won't cooperate with our audit," she said.
"I think the teachers are being used to front for the other unions ... to actually get this bill out," Hanabusa said. "Everybody wants to be for education, and on top of that, teachers use this as their major issue for (political) endorsements.
"Some of us said, 'Thank you but no thank you,'" Hanabusa said.
It would be hard for lawmakers to ignore the unions' resisting the state administration's efforts to account for tens of millions of dollars in premium reimbursements in the union health funds, she said.
"Are you going to say, 'You can keep the state money, and we'll walk away from it and you are not going to be accountable for any of this?'" Hanabusa said. "I don't think our legislators today can do that, irrespective if they support teachers or not."
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