(DES MOINES) – Gov. Terry Branstad today signed Executive Order 78, which allows state workers to voluntarily pay 20 percent of their health care insurance premium.
According to the Department of Administrative Services (DAS), 88 percent of state workers do not contribute anything toward their health insurance premium, and in total, Iowa taxpayers fund 97 cents of every one dollar spent on health care premiums.
How bout you who complain take a $2400 pay cut right now – do that and then bitch.
I’m not any different than the rest of ya.
My AGI for last year was $37,000 for a family of three to survive off.
If it goes any lower, we’d be eligible for aid such as reduced price school lunches, etc.
Anyone who is not a state employee in my income and also $20,000 higher is eligible for free medical through blue cross for their kids through Hawk-I, but as a state employee I’m not eligible and pay plenty in copays and premiums for dental and optical, etc.
So actually others can get their single plan through employer (generally for no expense) and then put their kids on Hawk-I. So I actually pay more than I would be otherwise.
But I can assure you, a $2400 cut to my salary is not an option I can agree to at this point and I would say those of you who bitch, you take that off your salary and then you will have something to say. And I’m talking about middle class folk, not Branstad.
This is nothing but brain-dead trying to have the public blame the workers for what they have negotiated with the employer. Yes the employees are getting great health care at low or no cost but they have negotiated this benefit fairly. Maybe if brain-dead would make his rich friends pay their fair share the state would not need to take money off the table of hard working Iowans.
These benefits were negotiated at a time the economy allowed this type of excess. That time has long passed, so the next time your contract comes up for negotiation, remember the Crystal Sugar workers. And I hope you go on strike, so maybe then you’ll know what it’s like to face the challanges the real working public face every day.
And as far as the Crystal Sugar workers, those greedy bottom feeders can rot in the hell of their own making.
Stop whining, the prez has it all figured out. We’re all going to pay the same for health care. Except for politicians.. who won’t pay anything, as the working person will still pay for them…
Boo Hoo state worker join the rest of non taxpayer funded workers costs.
How is this worthy of the paper it is written on?
Voluntary???? Are you kidding me. What kind of B.S. is that. These are the same people that demand more and more in each negotiation. The only way that is going to happen is if it becomes mandatory.
None of us will do it.
Typical public employee. What more can I say.
No employee public or private is going to pay more then they have too
Ask brandead why he capped the amount “upto 20%”. Why not say voluntary any amount not less then the current amount.