The Miami Herald's Beth Reinhard and Marc Caputo have an excellent story published today about the fact that at the same time that many of Florida's lawmakers are vehemently protesting about expanding health care coverage to insure those who have none, they themselves are the recipients of free insurance premiums.
As the story indicates, not even Congress gets that type of coverage. And it's not just limited to the Cabinet or the Legislature. Over 27,000 state employees also enjoy the coverage.
Governor Crist says the perk is part of his job, but Attorney General (and gubernatorial aspirant) Bill McCollum tells the paper that the premiums should be part of budget negotiations. He is not on the state plan himself.
“Generally speaking, I believe every government employee should pay a portion of their health insurance premiums, and this is an issue the Legislature should examine,'' the Republican said in a statement.
His gubernatorial opponents, Lakeland State Senator Paula Dockery and CFO Alex Sink, disagree, saying they don't believe it would be fair to those state employees.
Sink told the Herald,
“When you have employees who pay no premiums, it's a part of their total compensation package,'' Sink said. “To me, of greater concern, is why we might have two classes of employees in state government: one class doesn't pay any premiums and the other class does. That certainly seems unfair to me.
That's true, because the story says over 100,000 state employees do pay premiums.
The story also quotes Laura Goodhue, executive director of Florida CHAIN, a health care advocacy group, who says, "I definitely think it's hypocritical,. “State legislators always have other priorities, but we're talking about health insurance for pregnant women, poor children and people who are disabled.''
This article appears in Nov 25 – Dec 1, 2009.