Bill Leibensperger's speech to the STRS Board, March 19, 2009

March 19, 2009

State Teachers Retirement System of Ohio Public Testimony

Dear Executive Director Nehf, Chairperson Cervantes and Distinguished Board Members:

[Self introduction as representing the Health Care Advocates and some spontaneous remarks here.]

Our purpose in writing is two-fold, first to acknowledge the funding challenges facing the System and commend you for your commitment to a structured and reasoned approach to long-term contingency planning; and second, to remind the Board of the Health Care Advocates' commitment and willingness to provide broad, well-reasoned constituent input to your deliberations. As you know, HCA is a coalition of stakeholder professional organizations and through one or more of our member organizations HCA represents all of the 400,000+ members of STRS. A hallmark of our coalition is consensus decision-making. When HCA offers its support on an issue, you can be assured it speaks from a position of broad inclusiveness, not narrow interests.

In the seven years since HCA was formed a foundation of trust has been built between HCA and the System. As a result of the partnership between HCA and STRS, a base of bipartisan support for the funding initiative has been established in the Legislature, an extensive grassroots network of Health Care Champions has been built, and prior to the economic downturn, 13 years of solvency had been added to the HCSF. A key ingredient in the partnership between HCA and STRS is open communication. Having HCA at the table sharing in the discussions, deliberations, and recommendations concerning the health care program has proven to be a successful model.

At the March HCA meeting, our member organizations agreed via consensus to expand HCA's scope of concern to include pension funding and benefits. For HCA to remain singularly focused on health care, while the System grapples with a wider array of funding and benefit design issues would be less than responsible on our part. We ask that you revive and continue your tested, successful model of partnership with HCA and invite us to be a fully participating partner in the Board's long-term contingency planning initiative, as well as continue our participation in Special Health Care meetings as needed. There are unprecedented challenges before us, and we are committed to sharing the weight of accountability for conceptualizing and supporting responsible solutions. As always, we are very clear about what we can bring to the table in an advisory capacity. We honor and respect the Board's decision-making authority, but hope we have proved ourselves as worthy partners in pursuing our shared interests. Thank you for your consideration.