* From the Illinois Policy Institute’s news service…

State employee unions have returned to court in an effort to lock in continued pay for the fiscal year, get medical claims paid, stop layoffs and retain step pay raises and semi-automatic promotions despite lack of a contract. […]

“The administration has received a copy of the complaint and is currently reviewing it,” Rauner spokeswoman Catherine Kelly said earlier this week. […]

“This possibility will inevitably deprive many participants of the insurance provided by their labor agreements and employment contracts,” according to [union] pleadings.

The unions seek relief by way of two strategies, the first being an impairment of contract argument and the other a request for an injunction to aid in arbitration of pending grievances.

The unions argue state employees shouldn’t be caught in the middle when elected leaders can’t agree.

State “employees are now pawns in the political dispute over the state budget,” the complaint said. “They and their families deserve better.”

* From AFSCME last week…

As you may have heard, late last week the state Department of Central Management Services (CMS) posted on its website a memo to group health insurance participants claiming that, due to the budget impasse, the state has neither the funds nor the legal authority to continue to pay medical claims incurred by participants in the self-funded medical and dental plans. The memo further stated that once the FY 16 budget is in place and funds have been appropriated, payment of medical and dental claims will resume.

While the memo mentioned only the self-funded insurance plans, the union subsequently learned that the Rauner Administration has halted premium payments to the HMO plans as well.

AFSCME received no prior notification of this sweeping change, but since the news became public, the union has been seeking to gather all of the relevant information. CMS has told the union that it is working with the health plans to mitigate the impact of this payment freeze on plan participants. It is our understanding that, for the time being, the HMO plans have agreed to continue to operate as normal without disruption, and that plan participants will be provided with medical treatment based on the usual schedule of co-payments.

The self-funded plans are also working with CMS to try to ensure uninterrupted medical care, but questions remain as to how individual doctors, hospitals and other medical providers in those plans will react to the state’s announcement. The group health plan is already many months in arrears in paying these providers and some say they simply cannot afford to continue to provide care without being paid.

We are very concerned that medical providers in the self-funded plans will begin to demand that employees or retirees pay the full cost of a service at the time of the treatment—especially as there is no sign that the budget impasse will be resolved in the near future.

If your physician or other medical or dental care provider insists on payment at the time of treatment, CMS recommends that you contact your health plan and ask for assistance in dealing with that provider. If the health plan cannot facilitate treatment, please send this information to AFSCME Council 31. E-mail the name of the medical provider and the date on which you were required to pay in full for medical or dental care to mperez@afscme31.org so that the union is able to document all problems that arise.

While it is not yet clear what the full implications of the Administration’s payment freeze will be on health plan participants, AFSCME is taking proactive legal action to seek to ensure that health coverage is not in any way interrupted or compromised. AFSCME and other unions have filed suit in circuit court seeking a court order that would require the state to pay claims from health care providers in the group insurance plan.

This health insurance crisis is but the latest harmful consequence of Governor Rauner’s failure to work constructively toward developing and enacting a FY 16 budget and the revenue measures needed to fund it. The governor continues to insist that unless state legislators enact measures to strip Illinois workers of their union rights, he will not make any effort to remedy our state’s steady slide toward fiscal disaster.

That’s the height of irresponsibility—jeopardizing the vital services that state government funds or provides, threatening the jobs of public-service workers, and now casting a cloud of uncertainty over the health coverage of state and university employees, retirees and our families—all in the name of creating leverage for the governor’s extreme political agenda.

But we’re not going to stand aside and let it happen. You can be confident in the knowledge that your union is doing everything possible to protect your health care, just as we have in ensuring that state employee paychecks are uninterrupted, and in working to combat closures and layoff threats. When the call goes out, be ready to do your part, too.

In unity,
Roberta Lynch
Executive Director