THE
State Employees Association of North Carolina, SEIU Local 2008 P.O. Drawer 27727, Raleigh, NC • www.seanc.org 800-222-2758 • 919-833-6436 • Circulation 55,000
July 2012
• Vol. 30, Issue 8
State Halts Inmate Health Care Privatization Victory for Working Families, Taxpayers and Public Safety by
Cary Edgar
On May 24, SEANC gained a victory for members, families and taxpayers by successfully defeating an attempt by the Department of Public Safety (DPS) to privatize the jobs of 2,000 state prison health care workers. Opposing privatization is SEANC’s No. 1 policy platform objective, as voted on by the 2011 convention delegates. Earlier this year, DPS issued a request for proposals for companies that would privatize inmate health care – a move that surprised legislators. If DPS had Columbia who have learned hard lessons succeeded in their plan, thousands of about the dangers of privatizing inmate state employees would have lost health care, including pay-to-play campaign their jobs. contributions, unsafe Privatizin SEANC has been fighting g prisons and lawsuits. State Pris on this privatization effort for After reading SEANC’s Health Ca re months, holding forums report, legislators with correctional personnel understood the across the state and talking to importance of slowing legislative leaders about the down the privatization A Prescrip dangers of privatizing these train. They were especially Making Ta tion for xpayers Si ck jobs. concerned about how Spring 20 12 To educate legislators, wasteful privatization SEANC published a scathing would have been with 68-page report detailing the pitfalls taxpayers’ money. of privatizing inmate health care. The When the issue came up for discussion report, titled “Privatizing State Prison on the floor of the General Assembly, Health Care: A Prescription for Making legislators unanimously voted to halt the Taxpayers Sick,” was given to every privatization effort during the 2011-2013 member of the General Assembly by biennium as part of a Medicaid fix bill. SEANC lobbyists and leaders. You can The bill went straight to Gov. Beverly read the report at http://bit.ly/KK4e87. Perdue’s desk and she signed it into law The report detailed cautionary tales on May 24. from 33 states and the District of The efforts to halt this privatization State Em
ployees
Association
of North
Carolina
PHOTO BY TONI DAVIS
SEANC Asst. Communications Director
SEANC Executive Director Dana Cope, left, presents House Majority Leader Rep. Paul “Skip” Stam with a copy of the association’s 68-page report about the failures of prison health care privatization in 33 states and the District of Columbia.
threat were bolstered by hundreds of phone calls and emails made by SEANC members to voice their concerns to elected leaders. District 26 Chairman Stanley Gales, a DPS employee, called several legislators to underscore the public safety risk of privatizing inmate health care, saying, “People sometimes forget that privatizing a vital prison role puts the surrounding community at risk. These inmates need health care, but they also need it to be provided by someone who is properly trained for what can be a dangerous task.” In particular, SEANC would like to thank Sen. Tom Apodaca (R-Henderson) and Rep. Nelson Dollar (R-Wake) who made the wise decision to invest in this core public service and the people who provide these health care services.
cedgar@seanc.org