“A sale and privatization of the Office of Group Benefits will have no negative impact for those covered.”
“We’re not selling the Office of Group Benefits.”
“Let me say that again: A sale and privatization of OGB will have no negative impact for those covered.”
“At the end of the day, the state will still have the Office of Group Benefits.”
“The procurement of a financial adviser to help the state evaluate a potential sale of OGB was undertaken in accordance with applicable law.”
“We’re not selling OGB.”
—Commissioner of Administration Paul Rainwater at various times in testimony before the Senate Retirement Committee on the proposed privatization of the Office of Group Benefits.
Louisiana Voice 
I sincerely believe that the Commissioner doesn’t know a lot about health insurance administration. He and the person that holds the highest office in our state are getting some bad advise in my opinion. It is coming from a couple of DOA appointees, one of which had previous associations with some wall street folks. This whole matter, in my opinion, is getting closer and closer to a look from the federal authorities. Hang on folks we may have some fireworks before too long.
I think the State of Louisiana should shut down some of the many state prisons, especially Angola, and sell the land that the state owns. We need land reform in Louisiana! The State of Louisiana owns hundreds of thousands of acres, yet a young guy…or even an old one…can’t find a little piece of land that he can afford to grow him a garden, much less a truck farm. Again, we need land reform in Louisiana! And those private owners who own thousands and thousands of acres pay very little state and local taxes on their lands worth millions and millions of dollars. Let me say it again! We need land reform in Louisiana!
Is there any wonder our state is the butt of so many jokes around the country. This guy (Rainwater) is a snake oil saleman of the highest order. Surely, our legistators can see that this entire project (the privatization of OGB) is bogus — and will severely damage a large number of our retired citizens who have given their lives to serve Louisiana and have earned the right to a dignified retirement with full medical coverage, which could be lost with the privatization of the Office of Group Benefits.
The point that seems to be lost most of all here is that most of these state public servants retired without being eligible to receive Medicare — because they worked their entire careers for the state. Without Medicare or OGB and instead having to rely on a private insurer who must make a profit, these Louisiana citizens will face tremendous emotional stress, as well as financial hardship, and many will even likely be uninsurable because of existing physical problems.
I wonder how many of our legistators (who, incidentally, are covered under another health care program — LSU First — and won’t be affected by this) would like to have their parents suffer this injustice.
Paul Rainwater needs to get his facts straight. The Office of Group Benefits is self-funded, which means the employees are paid from the premiums collected from state workers. He will not be saving any money by elimating these positions. As a retired state employee I like knowing that if I have a problem with my health insurance, I do not have to talk to someone that is not in Louisiana. OGB is located here in Baton Rouge and state employees are able to go talk face to face with someone to work out their concerns. As a former OGB employee, I know that these people have dedicated their lives to serve the people of this state. Just because other States have sold off their Health Insurance does not mean Louisiana has to follow suit. May dad always said if it is not broken, do not fix it. Office of Group Benefits is not broken so they need to be left alone.
rainwater has said that the surplus will remain with ogb for claims payment, but has anyone examined exactly what that means? whose claims? let’s say bcbs gets the ppo… the surplus now in effect belongs to them, they’d have both the ppo and hmo under the auspices of ogb (other plans are fully insured)… the very fact that the surplus exists and “belongs” to the new vendor means that a contract can be signed that seems to, on the face of it, limit a firm’s profit margin… smoke and mirrors
also, did the division not attempt to outsource the ppo last year? who bid? what was the result? it’s already been shown that outsourcing the ppo will not save the state any money; if this were not the case it would have been done last year
Let’s follow the logic, assuming some of what Rainwater has said is true. The state expects that a private company will pay $30 million per year over the course of a five year contract to purchase the “book of business” currently offered by OGB. The only way a private company could recoup this investment would be if the state sells the book of business as fully-insured with the private company retaining the excess of premium dollars above claim costs. That scenario makes no fiscal sense for the state. No other scenario makes sense for a private company paying those kinds of dollars. There is no logic to this expectation. So Mr. Rainwater should not wonder why he is getting so much suspicion about where the money would be coming from.
exactly right… they pay $30M a year, collect premiums, but pay no claims (until the $520M surplus runs out)… pretty sweet deal if you ask me… they’ll be fully insured in name only (again, until the surplus is depleted)
i’ll bet ogb’s board would gladly work a deal to “buy” ogb’s freedom from the division for, say, $200M with one condition: ogb is again governed by the board and is again under the treasury dept…. first thing the board would do? bring back tommy teague
I thought LSU (first) med benefits were administered by the largest local private health insurer, too. The same one hoping to buy, administer, buy, administer, buy, administer OGB.
it was definity, then uhc, now cigna… i haven’t heard any rumors about cigna wanting a piece of ogb
I must say that Hopeful above knows what he is talking about. All of the other crazy sell Louisiana ideas by this administration have been proven ridiculous and this one will face the same fate in the end. Why don’t those folks just scrap this crazy idea and start running the State like they are supposed to? They are looking at cashing in when they no longer have their little low paid state jobs.
Shame on these folks…