Oct. 22, 2003

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Health Insurance Changes Coming

A team of Guild representatives met recently with Post management for a briefing on upcoming changes in the health insurance coverage for all Post employees. The details are complex and are explained in materials being distributed by the company. The good news is that Aetna PPO premiums will remain stable for part-timers and for full-timers who earn less than $60,000 a year. The bad news is that rates are going up for everyone else, as are Aetna PPO deductibles. Rates are up a lot for all employees in the HMO plans. Dental rates are unchanged, with small changes in coverage.

The Guild has limited input into the details of the health plan. Rather than try to micro-manage the plan, we have taken the strategy of insisting on contractual language assuring that Guild-covered employees have the same plan options as top managers have. But our contract allows us to meet with Post management periodically to push for our priorities. And there is evidence that we are succeeding. Last year, for example, we complained loudly about The Post’s stated plan to shift a large percentage of the company’s healthcare premiums onto employees, and to do so in a non-progressive way that would have especially hurt lower-paid employees. This year The Post backed away from that plan, and to the extent it raised costs in the main Aetna plan it did so only for higher paid employees.

For the record, the Guild goes into these talks committed to the following values: The employer should continue to pick up the vast majority of costs; cost increases should be applied in a progressive manner; the company should pursue cost containment by promoting healthy living; and the sick should not be economically punished for being sick.

Darlene Meyer, Ceci Connolly, Martha Hamilton and Rick Weiss represented the Guild at this year’s meeting with Trish Dunn (Post VP for labor), Peggy Schiff (a VP for personnel) and Ann McDaniel (VP for human resources). We expressed support for management’s decision to keep Aetna PPO rates the same for people earning under $60,000, though we are not happy about the fact that, proportional to income, people earning $60,000 to $90,000 will see a bigger increase than those earning more than $90,000. We also suggested it is not fair, when classifying employees by income level, to stop with a top category of “$90,000 or more.” Such a broad income category does not address the huge inequities in that increasingly large and diverse group, especially since the insurance plan is not restricted to Guild-covered employees but covers all employees, including high-paid managers. An employee earning $91,000 a year now pays the same percentage of premiums as high-level senior managers who are paid $150,000 or $200,000 or more per year. That category ought to be divided into two or three subgroups, so the growing number of Guild-covered employees crossing that $90,000 mark are not getting hit with management-style costs.

One of the more troubling things that caught our attention was Post management’s imperfect entrée into the preventive health arena. The Post professes a commitment to promoting the most cost-effective (over)
health screening tools, and it is working to improve coverage of preventive screenings and tests that can both save lives and, over time, save the company money. We support that. But the company has started this process by beefing up its coverage for the wrong two tests: the PSA screening test for prostate cancer and routine mammograms for breast cancer. Neither test has been shown to save lives when used as a general screening tool in large, generally healthy and mostly younger populations like the Post’s (though they are beneficial for individuals who know they are at increased risk of cancer because of family history or other factors, and mammograms can be helpful in women older than 50). In fact, there is considerable evidence that they add to costs by giving false positive results or in other ways leading people to take additional tests unnecessarily.

Post managers confessed that the initial focus on those two tests was largely symbolic and part of an effort to get people to start thinking more about prevention. We say, let’s not waste money on cosmetics. Let’s have coverage for tests that make a difference in our health and that can help reduce -- not increase -- insurance premiums.

Specifically, the Guild encouraged management to devote resources to blood pressure and cholesterol screenings, which are inexpensive and have been shown to save lives and dollars. Guild representatives also endorsed the idea of having health fairs or other programs that can help employees learn how to better manage chronic illnesses such as diabetes and heart disease. Post managers said they would research the possibility of organizing blood pressure testing at The Post. Unfortunately, management was unwilling to permit the Guild to become more involved in its plans to enhance preventive health and disease management programs, promising instead to keep us posted.

The Guild team lobbied for a workout facility in the building (yes, a small one may be coming), half-portion options in the cafeteria and insurance discounts or other incentives to promote healthy living.

Things you can do:

--Ceci Connolly and Rick Weiss

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