Republicans can't get enough votes to reform MESSA

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on September 30, 2007 at 4:59 PM, updated October 01, 2007 at 10:50 AM

In a strange turn of events, Republicans now can't muster up enough votes in the House to get their own party's teacher health care reform plan passed.

From the Associated Press: of the 52 House Republicans were voting against the measure Sunday afternoon and Agema was absent, so even with four Democrats supporting it, it remained 10 votes short of passage. That meant no votes on key issues had been finalized in the House or the Senate by 3 p.m. Sunday.
Since 2005, Republicans in Lansing have been demanding Democrats vote to create a law requiring the teachers union's insurance arm, MESSA, open up its health care claims vault so school districts can get competitive bids.

The health care reform measure is unpopular with the powerful Michigan Education Association school employee's union.

They're the only union that opposes letting cash-starved districts attempt to get better insurance rates.

And now, with four Democrats (I have no idea who) bitting the union hand that feeds them, the GOP can't get this reform passed with less than 7 hours before the state government shutdown begins.

(See the Detroit News' Web site...they have a government shutdown running clock on the homepage)

From the Detroit Free Press:

House Speaker Andy Dillon, D-Redford Township, said the agreement between the political parties is that majority Democrats will agree to pass changes in teacher health insurance as long as Republicans provide yes votes on the expansion of the sales tax to services.

House Speaker Andy Dillon lashed, telling the Detroit News this:

"We need some adults in the Republican caucus. It's their No. 1 reform, it's their Holy Grail and they can't even vote for it."

The Republican-run Senate approved the health care reform in a 21-17 party line vote.

I gotta wonder if there's a groundswell of teachers out there knocking on their representative's doors saying, "Don't take away my benefits!"

On the MEA Web site, union leaders have posted messages urging their members to take action.

A senator from Holland, Wayne Kuipers, is holding up state budget talks to secure passage of SB 418, which would attack MESSA's pools. This legislation would not save the state any money. Please contact your legislators and the governor and tell them not to let Kuipers hold a budget agreement hostage to his political agenda.
Sen. Wayne Kuipers, R-Holland, wants to let districts get competitive health insurance bids.
That's a pretty veiled and loaded statement.

On one hand, passing a law encouraging pooling and competitive bids does not save the STATE any money.

But it has the potential to save school districts money over time as union contracts come up for negotiation and administrations can use the claims data to solicit bids.

MESSA, a not-for-profit arm of the MEA, services just under 50% of all school employees in Michigan.

If schools are allowed to get data for bids, it doesn't mean MESSA will go out of business. They just won't have a stranglehold on the market and maybe (just maybe) were over-priced to begin with.

And maybe they're not over-priced. If so, then why not prove it?

I've spoken with health insurance actuaries and school leaders about this issue. It's impossible to get competitive bids without data about a group of employee's health history, which would remain confidential.

The money districts might save could be put to better use (i.e. hiring more teachers, giving them much-deserved raises, more professional development, buying math books before the school year starts, etc...).

Chad Livengood
Staff Writer
Jackson Citizen Patriot