Communication
Retirees Newsletter
THE STATUS OF HEALTH INSURANCE
FOR
PEF RETIREES OF NEW YORK STATE
As a result of contracts signed with CSEA and UUP, and the tentative agreement with PEF, the Department of Civil Service will be making changes to the health insurance plan which it offers to NYS retirees. PLEASE NOTE: THESE ARE CHANGES ONLY! RETIREE HEALTH CARE WILL CONTINUE TO BE PROVIDED. These anticipated changes are being viewed with much alarm by some PEF Retirees with a consequent call for PEF to vote against ratifying what the Negotiating Team has accomplished. This action stems from a misunderstanding of the NYSHIP for Retirees. Retiree health care coverage is never a function of negotiations and retiree health care issues should not be a consideration in any of the decisions regarding this tentative agreement.
Perhaps some clarification is in order. To begin with, the health insurance coverage which was recently negotiated between PEF and the State is almost identical to the coverage previously negotiated for CSEA and UUP. If PEF had been the first union to settle, then the health care coverage agreed to by PEF would have set the pattern for the remainder of the state unions. PEF was not the first union to settle so the pattern was set by the CSEA and UUP contracts, which cover about 100,000 state employees. Because PEF was the third union to settle, it is reasonable to conclude that the State would not have agreed to any plan for PEF that was very much different than the pattern set by CSEA and UUP. Put another way, PEF was going to get the same coverage as other State unions whether it liked it or not. This is the way that it has always been and expecting a change is totally unrealistic.
But that is all somewhat beside the point. The retiree’s coverage is always very similar to what the active employees get but there is no connection between what PEF gets and what the PEF retirees get. In other words, if PEF refused to accept the State’s health care offer and worked without a contract, the retirees would still get new health insurance based upon what had previously been negotiated with other unions. All retirees, whether from CSEA, UUP, PEF, or any other bargaining unit, get identical health care coverage which is currently the same as, or a very close approximation to, what active employees receive. Long before PEF signed the tentative agreement, Civil Service had created the basic framework for the changed Retiree health care plan and that is scheduled to become effective on 1/1/2005.
PEF negotiates a contract with NY State for the employees in the PS&T unit. That contract includes specific details of health care coverage which the State is legally required to provide to active employees as a result of that contract. The same situation exists for all other unionized State workers. PEF (and any of the other unions) does not negotiate for retirees and, therefore, the specifics of health care coverage included in the PS&T contract is not applicable to retirees. However, Section 163 of the NYS Civil Service Law states that the State “…shall provide for health insurance for retired employees of the State…and their spouses and dependent children as defined by the regulations of the president, on such terms as the president may deem appropriate.” (NOTE: “president” means the President of the Civil Service Commission.) What this essentially says is that the State has to provide health insurance to retirees but the scope and level of coverage is left up to the President of the Civil Service Commission. In practical terms, the President will consult with the other members of the Civil Service Commission so it is up to the Commission to determine what level of coverage the retirees receive. Historically, probably as much for ease of administration as any other reason, Civil Service has provided the same coverage as is provided to active employees. Nevertheless, this is not dictated by law and the Civil Service Commission can make whatever modifications they deem appropriate, for retirees. At the present time, the NYSHIP Unit in the Department of Civil Service has indicated that they anticipate that the current health care coverage arrangement will be followed, at least for the immediate term. What this means is that NY State will continue to provide retirees with health insurance basically identical to what the active employees get but that decision is up to them. If they choose at some point not to do that, there is no contractual way to correct that action.
I hope that this explanation clarifies this issue. What does or does not happen with the recently negotiated contract will have no bearing upon what happens to retiree health care. Contract ratification should be left up to the active membership based upon their perceived needs and desires. Pushing our active PEF brothers and sisters to defeat the contract based upon a desire to retain the current retiree health care coverage will not gain us that result and will only serve to poison the relationship that we now
enjoy.
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