THE
Publication of the State Employees Association of North Carolina • August 2009 • Vol. 27 No. 4 • Circulation 55,000
Nearly 100 Join SEANC’s Protest at Blue Cross Headquarters By Erica Baldwin
What do we want? Public option! When do we want it? Now!
“They should not stand in the way of meaningful, affordable health care reform in the country,” SEANC Executive Director Dana Cope told WRAL. “North Carolina’s Blue Cross Blue Shield is leading the national effort against President Obama’s healthreform plan, and that’s a shame.” Blue Cross claims to support health care reform, but not a public option which would affect their bottom line. Cope encouraged attendees to ask members of Congress to support the president’s public health care option and to write letters to Blue Cross CEO Bob Greczyn to ask him to stop opposition to the plan. “Did anybody here get a $766,000 bonus [like Bob Greczyn] last year?” asked Adam Searing of the North Carolina Health Access Coalition. “No, we got a 20 percent increase in our health insurance premiums to pay for that bonus!” The protest was SEANC’s part of the Service Employees International Union’s “Change that
PHOTO BY TONY BOOE
Chapel Hill – Nearly 100 SEANC members and like-minded health care advocates chanted in front of Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina’s headquarters in Chapel Hill with one goal in mind: To protest Blue Cross’ opposition to national health care reform that includes a public option.
During SEANC’s protest at Blue Cross’ headquarters in Chapel Hill on July 15, SEANC Executive Director Dana Cope holds up a photo of Blue Cross CEO Bob Greczyn, who opposes a public health care option.
Works” campaign and their national July 15 “We Can’t Wait for Affordable Health Care” day. SEANC will continue to press Blue Cross to prioritize people over profits and market share domination. According to the state Department of Insurance, Blue Cross maintains a 72.5 percent market share in North Carolina. A public option that included state employees would create additional competition in the marketplace and could end the no-bid sweetheart
deal enjoyed by the company with the State Health Plan (SHP). SEANC will continue its efforts to open up the SHP’s no-bid contract with Blue Cross. Earlier this year, legislators chose to increase state employees’ health care costs by $600 rather than ask Blue Cross to concede one red cent during the state’s financial crisis. ebaldwin@seanc.org
Budget Update As of press time, the North Carolina General Assembly continues to debate differences between the House and Senate budgets and was one of only three states in the country who had yet to finish their budget. State lawmakers, who are charged with providing citizens with a balanced budget by July 1, extended the budget deadline with two continuing resolutions to keep government running until July 31. Previous SEANC articles have highlighted proposals for mandatory (Senate) versus voluntary
(House) furloughs for state employees to help balance the more than $4 billion budget deficit. In addition the two chambers are grappling with how to raise additional revenues that will be acceptable to Gov. Bev Perdue. SEANC continues to work the halls of the General Assembly in an effort to ensure that only voluntary furloughs are included in the upcoming budget. Upon the passage of a new budget, look for a complete report and its impact on state employees in The Legislative Update and on the SEANC Web site.