RH Jones: State HC BD Meeting of Feb. 22, 2006

March 3, 2006

To all:

As a retired member of the Akron Edu. Assoc. (AEA) they are kind in mailing me their "Random Notes" of Feb. 27. In it is an exposure of the dastardly state "play for pay" political administration. As you retired STRS members may know, Actives are not happy having a one HC-system serving all. Each local association wants to negotiate their HC with their local Bds. of Educ. Here is their article:

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State Health Care Board Holds First Meeting

If the subject wasn't so serious, the situation would have been laughable. The State Health Care Board met for the first time February 22 in Columbus, nearly eight months after it was required to meet by law and well beyond the legal deadline for making its report. AEA leadership was there, as was Representative Brian Williams.

We were pleasantly surprised by the men and women on the Board itself, even though none represent any of the state employees who would be covered by a state-wide health care plan. For the most part, they are bright, articulate individuals who seem to genuinely recognize how enormous the consequences are of what they've been asked to do.

Now for the bad news. The Boards meetings are being facilitated by Department of Administrative Services, the consummate bureaucratic juggernaut staffed by political hacks of the ruling party. It was immediately apparent that DAS had jumped the gun on the Board. For example, the legislation creating the Board gives the Board authority to hire consultants--Watson Wyatt--by means of a nifty no bid $500,000 contract. (This firm has done much work for the state; they know how to dance.) When several Board members asked how long each would be serving (their appointments are staggered), but no one from DAS could answer the question! Nor could they explain why the Advisory Committee--mandated by law to serve at the behest of the Board--was appointed without input from Board members. The most absurd exchange of the day occurred when a Board member pointed out that deadlines in the legislature had already passed without action, and that they needed to be changed to realistically accommodate the Board's availability and reporting timelines (as yet undetermined). DAS argued the deadlines were part of the legislation and it would be difficult to change them without additional legislation. We wouldn't be surprised to see amendments made as part of some unrelated bill to modernize the state's salt barns along the highways.

As of now, it's anybody's guess as to what the Board will do and when they will do it. In spite of the impression the Board made on us and their ability to raise the right questions, we can't help but wonder if they will be able to avoid the DAS steamroller.

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Retirees, teachers, we need to support our active teachers on this. Who could trust this state administration to control HC for all state employees?

By the way, sadly my AEA, as OFT did, supports John Brackett instead of CORE's recommendation of Tom Hall. Brackett has great credentials, but Hall has more, and is better qualified. However, happily, AEA did support OFT's & CORE's candidate, highly qualified, Mark Frederick.

RHJones, CORE & SummitCRTA