October 30, 2008
Common Ground: I Don't Want David Cicilline Making Decisions About My Healthcare Either
To the members of the six Providence municipal unions who, in the words of Philip Marcelo of the Projo, “[oppose] the city’s decision to change its health care benefits manager”, let me one more time pitch the most obvious solution to your dilemma…
- Your health insurance should be separated from any direct employer involvement; David Cicilline should have zero say who any individual has as their health insurer.
- The money now going to pay for a city-negotiated healthcare plan would then be distributed to the individual employees, in the form of increased salary. It’s your money anyway.
- Employees could then pool their money together and have their union negotiate directly with the insurer or insurers of their choice, to get the deal they want.
What health plan does that miserable litle prick have?
Posted by: joe bernstein at October 30, 2008 6:16 PMThis makes too much sense for the pea-brain union "leaders" to figure out. That would require work for them to go to the insurers and to negotiate a contract. Then they would actually have to be accountable to their members. Oh the horrors!
Posted by: James L. at October 31, 2008 8:44 AMI think the real sticking point is that the unions have no hand in the selection of management for the insurer, so they would be stuck with good faith negotiations, rather than threat-based. They just don't have much experience there.
Posted by: Mario at October 31, 2008 2:27 PMEveryone who has spent at least 30 yrs on the PFD ,"eating smoke",running into burning buildings that others are running from,please raise your hand .Also,if you're one of those who spend your shift wondering if you'll be hit by a stray bullet when you're trying to prevent 2 punks from killing each other ,you can also raise your hand,These are the only people who should be allowed to vote on which healthcare plan they want. I am for a 2 tiered system : all the city employees who sat at a desk for 30 yrs pushing papers or worse,had a part-time job for which they received full family health coverage and a pension -think Jack Cicilline and his 40 yr part-time stint as a Housing Court lawyer ,(could he produce even one case he worked on),should receive less coverage and all those employees who put their lives on the line for the residents of Prov.and have the health issues associated with those jobs should receive the best coverage available.Fair is fair. Finally, David Cicilline has some gaul changing anyone's healthcare when he was raised on City paid Blue Cross.I guess he thinks he's better than his own employees-classic little man behavior.
Posted by: sue at November 29, 2008 10:29 PM