The Wisconsin State Journal Chris Rickert column
By Chris Rickert, The Wisconsin State Journal | |
McClatchy-Tribune Information Services |
But if there's an argument in favor of the controversial 2011 law, it may well be the out-of-this-world health insurance benefits the city of
Not only were they a bad deal for
Act 10 prohibited municipalities from bargaining with workers over anything but base wages and required municipal employees to start paying a portion of their health insurance premiums out of their own pockets.
In 2011 before the law passed and again in 2013 when it was held up in court,
First the city started making workers pay some of their premiums; now it's looking to force employees to cover even more of their health insurances costs by instituting co-insurance payments toward an annual deductible.
If this sounds hard-hearted, it's worth noting that most in the private sector and plenty of those in public-sector jobs outside of
The line among public-sector unions has been that they've opted for good health insurance and other benefits over the big salaries their members could be getting for doing similar jobs in the private sector.
There's at least some truth to this. On the other hand, the lowest-paid full-time
Out-of-pocket payments like co-insurance aren't just a way to shift more of the ever-rising cost of health care from management to labor, though. They're also part of that elusive effort to "bend the cost curve" in American health care.
The theory is that if people are forced to directly confront the cost of care -- like by paying out of pocket -- they are less likely to go to the doctor for minor ailments that will get better on their own. Multiply this effect by entire populations and the results are lower health care and health insurance costs for everybody.
This doesn't hold true all the time and for all patients, but the most reliable data on this phenomenon, according to
Probably more important to the average
Wellness programs are another of those health care changes that much of the rest of the working world has already adopted, according to a 2012
In short, not only would the city's proposed health insurance changes be cheaper for taxpayers and an ally in the broader effort to keep health care costs in check, it's also good for employees' physical health -- if not necessarily for their financial health. (But then what's more important: good health and good wages, or poor health and slightly better wages?)
As an added benefit, the new plan could also save the city from having to pay penalties starting in 2018 under the Affordable Care Act, which is likely to deem the current plan a high-end, so-called "Cadillac" plan.
So far, the city's largest union isn't so sure paying more for health insurance is a decent trade off for avoiding the Obamacare penalties and gaining a wellness program, according to
The union has "concerns about having to pay more money out of pocket for insurance," especially when it comes to the city's lowest-paid workers, she said.
The unilateral and uncompromising approach to public-sector unions that Walker took in Act 10 was the antithesis of the collective bargaining process, which in areas less in thrall to unions than
But when management and labor come up with a health insurance policy like
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