Budget issue leaves health benefits for cafeteria workers in limbo

ATLANTA — The budget issue that has most rattled the General Assembly this year involves the proposed elimination of health insurance for 11,500 part-time school employees, mainly bus drivers and cafeteria workers.

Gov. Nathan Deal, defending the insurance cut for these “non-certificate” school workers, argued that it’s a matter of fairness to other state employees who work part time but don’t qualify for benefits.

The Georgia House, feeling the heat from the public over the unpopular proposal, put the benefits for the non-certificate workers back into the budget. But the legislators shifted that cost — more than $100 million — to the local school districts. That sparked a new outcry.

And as the debate continues about who should pay these costs, a state document circulated by a Georgia blogger has raised eyebrows about what the State Health Benefit Plan, or SHBP, is saving under its current insurance setup.

The document was generated in 2013 by the Department of Community Health, which runs the plan. According to the document, the projected savings of the switch to a single health insurer was to be $1.8 billion over three years - for 2014, this year and next.

“Some folks seeing [the savings document] for the first time are starting to question it,’’ says John Palmer, a leader of the group Teachers Rally to Advocate for Georgia Insurance Changes. The group, known by the acronym TRAGIC, helped push for changes in the state health plan last year.

“People want some answers,” Palmer says, adding that state leaders “keep saying the sky is falling with the budget.”

State officials point out that the State Health Benefit Plan leadership has changed since the creation of the 2013 document, which estimated savings under Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Georgia, the single insurer at that time.

A spokesman for Community Health said last week in an email that the state plan saw about $98 million in savings during the first six months of 2014. “Most of the savings were achieved through more competitive network pricing,” said Jeremy Arieh, Community Health spokesman.

The State Health Benefits Plan covers more than 630,000 state employees, teachers, other school personnel, retirees and dependents.