On Friday, March 7, members of UE Local 150, the North Carolina Public Service Workers Union, spoke out against increased insurance costs and cuts to health services at the State Health Plan Board of Trustees meeting. Last month, the SHP Board, led by State Treasurer Brad Briner, voted on several proposals to increase the premiums and deductibles paid by over 700,000 state employees. The board is also considering future cuts to services and privatization of retiree health insurance plans.
Briner has called upon state workers to “step up” to pay the extra premiums; state workers called on the board to instead “step up” and ask the General Assembly to stop giving major tax breaks to the wealthy and corporations.
Local 150 Recording Secretary Alexandra Fox, who works at Central Regional Hospital in Butner, detailed the “existential threat” faced by the state hospitals run by the Department of Health and Human Services. The state’s three psychiatric hospitals currently have over 400 empty beds due to staff shortages, and the department has a vacancy rate of 32.1 percent.
“DHHS is already in the middle of a major crisis of staff vacancies and having trouble to retain staff,” Fox said. “We cannot afford any increases to our premiums, to our deductibles or cuts to services. We are the people doing the most direct care, people cleaning the hospitals, but we can’t afford the care that we give to other people.”
Local 150 members address the board. Left to right: Alexandra Fox, Karina Hernandez, and Charles Owens.
Local 150 member Karina Hernandez, a social worker at Central Regional Hospital, told the board, “We are hearing about the surplus revenues that the state has. The surplus revenue last year alone could have wiped out a huge portion of the [State Health Plan] budget shortfall. But you all, and the General Assembly, did not see fit to prioritize state workers, the same workers that take care of you, your families and your communities. Instead they prioritized further tax breaks for the wealthy, for corporations, and to give away private school vouchers for the rich.”
Charles Owens, a healthcare technician at Cherry Hospital and vice president of the Cherry-O’Berry chapter of Local 150, stated, “Don’t make the workers pay for your mistake. You are going to increase the cost of our health care so high that we cannot afford to get sick.”
Local 150 has also been circulating an online petition, “Stop Cut Backs and Price Increases to State Health Plan!” The petition text declares that “State employees already suffer from low wages and record vacancy rates. Any increase in prices and reductions will further push away talented public servants and impact the quality of services we provide to the public. The economy of our state is doing well, and the state has plenty of revenue to cover the budget shortfalls.”