Gubernatorial candidate and Louisiana House Democratic Caucus Chairman John Bel Edwards (D-Amite) has sent a request to House Speaker Chuck Kleckley (R-Lake Charles) to convene a meeting of the House of Representatives in order to review controversial changes coming to the Office of Group Benefits (OGB).
Meanwhile, OGB has issued its own “fact sheet” in advance of the annual enrollment that begins Oct. 1 and closes Oct. 31 designed to defuse information released by the Legislative Fiscal Office that reflect dramatically higher premiums and slashed benefits.
OGB’s FAQ data sheet, however, did not include developments reported by LouisianaVoice late Monday which revealed revamped coverage plans designed to force retirees out of OGB and into Medicare coverage. The problem with that strategy, of course, is anyone hired before April 1, 1986, who never worked in the private sector are not eligible for Medicare coverage.
At the same time, the Legislative and Political Director for the Louisiana Federation of Teachers (LFT) has released a series of emails between her and OGB in which she experienced ongoing difficulty in obtaining answers to questions about pending changes in premiums and coverage.
Edwards’ request would allow the house to review the proposal in a forum where all members could ask questions of the Division of Administration, OGB administrators, the Legislative Fiscal Office, and offer suggestions and comments regarding plan changes that will bring an average 47% cost increase to 230,000 plan members and their families.
“The Governor has quietly used your tax dollars as a personal piggy bank, spending the $500 million fund balance of OGB to pay bills that have nothing to do with OGB or its members.” Edwards said. “But over $100million of that balance was paid in directly by the members of OGB. Now that he misspent their money, he dares to add insult to injury by asking more than a quarter million Louisiana working families to pay higher prices for less health insurance coverage.”
Commenting on the dramatic cost increases OGB member will face in the new year, Edwards said, “The likes of Bernie Madoff and Allen Stanford would be proud of the Jindal Ponzi scheme that, like theirs, preys largely on retirees living on fixed incomes.”
Edwards’ letter to Kleckley cited the recent hiring of two new OGB officials at more than six figures each as well as the Alvarez and Marsal contract to find “efficiencies” inside OGB that now totals $7.5million in costs to the state. In a written statement made in conjunction with the letter Edwards asked, “Bobby Jindal, and those who stood by and watched him dismantle healthcare in our state, hold themselves out as fiscal conservatives. Since when does fiscal conservatism define the role of government as an institution that cuts services in order to pay six figures to private consultants?”
“Like all of the governor’s self-created crises, the solution always seems to be to ask more of the people of our state: more money, more patience, more suspended disbelief.” Edwards said.
“New facts have come to light since the session ended. We owe it to our constituents to examine this issue together and to offer up some bipartisan solutions to our concerns. This impacts people in every single part of the state,” said Edwards.
Edwards told LouisianaVoice he has received telephone calls from retirees who were crying over joint efforts by OGB and Blue Cross/Blue Shield to revamp programs that could make coverage for retirees cost prohibitive.
Here is his letter to Kleckley: http://d3n8a8pro7vhmx.cloudfront.net/johnbelforlouisiana/mailings/120/attachments/original/JBEtoKleckley.pdf?1409081088
“This is going to destroy families,” he said, “and we owe it to our constituents to do what we can to keep them whole.”
Mary-Patricia Wray, legislative and political director for the LFT, said she had talked with OGB Executive Director Susan West “after much prodding about why I couldn’t get answers about the plans from anyone else” after a July 30 meeting of the Joint Legislative Committee on the Budget.
She said that while OGB has provided a preview of the agency’s plan booklet and dates for informational meetings to other groups, “they have provided LFT with none of this information.
“While we represent 21,000 teachers and school employees, many of whom are active members of OGB, the ones who will have no option on the exchange, but will only be able to pick from the new more costly plans, OGB has refused to assist us in directing our members to the appropriate resources to help them select a plan.
“This is even amidst the layoffs at OGB that have left them, in our opinion, unable to properly service the members of the plan.
“We have no problem with assisting our members,” she said. “However, we do have a problem with being denied the tools needed to do that well—for no apparent reason.”
She said West “asked me specifically to call with questions so that I can deliver accurate information to active members or OGB. If she has time to deal with our organizations questions and concerns personally, presumably as the busiest person on staff, I am left to believe the I willful rejection of our inclusion in important meetings about plan details and member communications is simply retribution for our testimony at Joint Budget, since up to that time there was no I indication whatsoever that our attempts to be a team player and deliver accurate info to teachers a school employees was in any way burdensome to the staff of OGB.
“This is an incredibly disappointing communication—one that unfortunately aligns largely with the direction in which policy makers have taken OGB—one that has cut so many staff people to occasion private contracts that it can ostensibly claim those very cuts as the self-created crisis that “requires” it to fail to do its job at all.”
Louisiana Voice 
Now will Speaker Kleckley call the House together or ignore Rep Edwards request? I feel Kleckley will ignore Rep. Edwards’ request because he is a puppet of jitler’s and will only do what he is told by the puppeteer. Waiting and watching.
He is quoted in the paper this morning saying he has no problem calling the House into session as a committee of the whole. Let’s hope he does so quickly. If nothing else, doing so will raise awareness and, hopefully, provide information for those of us who will have to make decisions in light of this, another in a series of C-Fs during this administration.
So let me see if I understand this… Jindal spends all the money so his budget problems won’t surface and the State workers and Retirees pick up the additional tab. And his “savings plan” pushes Retirees to Medicare, which most of them aren’t eligible for. And he pays a private firm, who I’m certain has no ties to him or his cronies, almost $8 mil to come up with this. Is that pretty much it? I just want to know… Who’s going to Prison and when?
At the very least, it’s a significant tax increase on state workers and retirees used to cover up Jindal’s dodgy bookkeeping. In the case of current state workers, particularly in higher ed and K-12, it’s a pay cut on the heals of five to six years of salary freezes. In the case of retirees, this could force them into poverty and/or early graves. I wonder how all that will go over in Iowa and New Hampshire?
With the tea partiers among their citizenry, swell. Others, not so much.
You both have said it so well, jwpatrick1 and Ben Lanier-Nabors. And Ben, in all the letters I’ve written regarding the 2015 proposed changes by OGB, I said that “they will also render us unable to maintain any semblance of decent health or quality of life, particularly those of us over the age of 60 who have multiple health problems with which to contend.” But you said it MUCH better and the way I SHOULD have said it because it’s the unvarnished truth – we WILL BE FORCED INTO POVERTY AND AN EARLY GRAVE!!!!
Iowa and New Hampshire have to know about it. And yes, if I can ever figure out which plan to join, it will surely put me into poverty.
Our man Jindal, despite all the hype and broken promises used to pass ObamaCare, makes Obama look like a piker.
This is an abuse of power. And, state employees and teachers, and their families, are being forced to pay for it.
Those in office now that do not step forward and stop this must not be returned to office.
Call, email and write your state representative and senator. Do it over and over. Ask them to tell you specifically what they are going to do about this. If you do not get a reply, or a sufficient reply, tell them that you will never, ever vote for them again and will ask everyone you know to not vote for them.
They are all up for re-election exactly one year from now.
It is time for maximum political pushback to start today.
AMEN, Veritas, AMEN. All the way too the max – including prison for the conspirators. RICO, anyone?
Now state workers/retirees will feel the sting of health insurance premium increases and service cuts that those of us with individual health insurance plans have had to endure for years.
It’s past time to explode this entire inefficient, expensive, corrupt “health care” system.
Sounds like it’s time to start bombarding our local legislators to join in with Rep. Edwards. I know I certainly will be calling upon them to join forces with him and outline to them exactly what the implications of these changes will mean for my family. I’m sure it won’t hurt to also remind them that elections are in one year…
PLEASE DO SO, ANONYMOUS RETIREE. Rep. John Bel Edwards DOES truly care about this and is definitely wanting to help us, but he can’t do it alone. Thanks!
I’ve done so, Kathy Lamonica. I got a lame excuse from Senator Ward. However, Rep. Havard actually made the effort to call me personally to speak with me about the matter. He IS very concerned and has voted against privatization from the start. What really helps matters is that his parents are both retired State employees with health issues. However, he is not really optimistic that anything that the House does will actually have any impact on Jindal’s actions. If and when Kleckley does call a meeting, retirees need to show up in droves as active employees are not going to be able to do so.
Obviously a lot of passion and anger around all of this. OneStateWorker posted this in the previous update about OGB:
“By the way, this is a classic implementation of The Shock Doctrine as described by Naomi Klein in her 2007 book:
1 Create a fiscal crisis by effectively directing state funds to private companies (The Jindal Louisiana Miracle: How can so much money be given to corporations with tax concessions and have the state get so little in return)
2 Use the created fiscal crisis to justify draconian changes in employment, benefits or services.”
Wow…. this is EXACTLY what has happened here.
ALL of what is happening to state employee and retiree insurance now and future, are a DIRECT result of the raiding of the reserve fund.
Again, I implore you, Mr. Aswell, Rep. Edwards and Treasurer Kennedy to dig into these questions, and let the public know the answers:
1)Was/is it a criminal violation/ malfeasance to use these OGB reserve funds to cover state general fund needs?
2) Was/is there anything in law/policy that states that the OGB reserve fund is dedicated for the healthcare and insurance needs of member employees and retirees?
3)Is this really “Taxpayer money”? Or is it member state employees’ and retirees’ money?
4)Are there grounds for legal action on behalf of state employees and retiree?
So I thank you in advance, Mr. Aswell, Treasurer Kennedy and Rep. Edwards, for your efforts to get definative answers to the questions above, and share those answers publicly. This is a BIG DEAL. What this administration has done here is not just the bad decision of the hour… this will affect costs for state employees and retirees for the REST of their lives. And all because Governor Jindal aspired to be “that guy” who never raised taxes on the national stage. State employees and retirees are funding that campaign platform….
Excellent post, Faith Lost.
Thank you Kathy. I truly hope that Mr. Aswell, Treasurer Kennedy, Representative Edwards, Marsha Shuler with the Advocate, and the RSEA WILL continue to push, question, ask outside legal experts and get a definitive answer to the questions above as to whether a crime was committed, and share their findings. At least we can all know this one way or the other, since the decision to spend down the reserve funds is the root cause of changes that will affect thousands for the rest of their lives. Those of you that read this, please forward this post to those above, and ask for answers…
It would be nice to know when this meeting is scheduled. We might not be invited to attend but we could make our presence known outside.
That’s more than seinebls! That’s a great post!