April 8th / 10th, 2011
"Time for Public Employees to Pay for Health Insurance"
Lost in the political turmoil of Wisconsin's collective bargaining war is
the fact that every state in the union is struggling with some sort of
financial crisis, and public employees may hold the key to solving them.
Washington economists say that the recession is over, but that declaration
rings hollow with our nation's Governors who are looking for ways to deal
with declining revenues. Their options are limited. Either create new
sources of revenue, or slash budgets, or both. For some state legislatures that
means proposing unpopular tax hikes on everything from gasoline to
cigarettes. For others, it means cutting much needed social services. But never in
the history of American belt tightening have lawmakers ever dared to
suggest that public employees pay for their own health insurance. That is, not
until now.
The New Jersey legislature, for example, passed a law requiring public
employees to contribute at least 1.5% of their annual salary toward their own
healthcare insurance. Iowa, where nearly 90% of all government workers pay
nothing for healthcare coverage, is also considering similar legislation.
And, closer to home, the North Carolina Senate has just approved a plan for
our 320,000 active state employees to pay anywhere from $10.86 to $21.72
per month for an individual policy.
Proponents of the plan say it is the only way to close a $515 million
dollar gap between projected tax revenues, and medical claims. But opponents
such as Democrat Doug Berger say that Republicans who favor the plan are, in
effect, waging war on public employees. Berger and his colleagues on the
left are singing the same old tune: "government workers make much less money
than their private sector counterparts, and giving them free healthcare
insurance is the least we can do to make life easier for these underpaid
servants of the people". The problem is that they are no longer underpaid. For
the first time in our nation's history, the salary disparity which exists
between the two sectors now favors government employees.
According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, state and local employees
earn on average about $39.60 per hour, compared with $27.42 per hour for
private sector employees. That represents a 44% difference. On the Federal
level, government worker pay exceeds that of the private sector in 83% of
occupations, including such jobs as accountants, nurses, surveyors, janitors,
and chemists. The average annual salary for federal workers is $66,591,
while that of their private sector counterparts is $55,500. That represents a
difference of $11,091 per year, and does not include perks and benefits.
For example, the average public employee receives six weeks paid vacation
every year, while folks in the private sector receive an average of just nine
days. Even worse, one in four private sector workers get no paid time off
at all. Speaking of benefits, that brings me back to healthcare insurance.
According to the USBLS, as a private sector taxpayer, I earn anywhere from
$6,000 to $11,000 less per year than a public employee, yet I must pay
$500 per month for my individual policy, while most local, state, and federal
workers pay absolutely nothing for theirs. Given the Bureau's data, there
is simply no longer any justification for private sector folks to have to
foot the health insurance bill of government workers now that the latter is
better paid than the former.
In times of prosperity and full employment, taxpayer supported perks for
the public sector would never be an issue. But now we are suffering the
effects of bad trade policies which reward greedy CEOS for taking our jobs
overseas, leading to a decimation of the manufacturing sector, and a steady
decline in tax revenues. Thus, Americans who are unemployed or underemployed
as a result, can scarcely afford to pay their own monthly premiums, much
less those of public employees.
We in the private sector have spent a lifetime generating revenues that
support our dedicated government workers. Now it's their turn to return the
favor by paying for their own health insurance. It's just good public
service.
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