{"id":1165,"date":"2011-03-29T08:59:17","date_gmt":"2011-03-29T08:59:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.medic8.com\/news\/?p=1165"},"modified":"2011-03-29T08:59:17","modified_gmt":"2011-03-29T08:59:17","slug":"usa-county-cuts-spending-on-health-insurance-8516","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.medic8.com\/news\/usa-county-cuts-spending-on-health-insurance-8516\/","title":{"rendered":"USA County Cuts Spending On Health Insurance-8516"},"content":{"rendered":"

Public spending cut backs in one United State\u2019s county has been attacked as being mean spirited. It seems Collins County in Texas has approved a $90 million spending cut on health insurance<\/a>, but at the expense of 30 retired workers. What\u2019s more the Commissioners who cut the budget did so without giving any of the retirees any notice.<\/p>\n

This, opponents argue this leaves the local government organisation open to legal challenges.<\/p>\n

The approval was a 3 to 2 majority vote, but one of the dissenters, Commissioner Joe Jaynes told local reporters: \u201cIt was unfortunate the way it was handled. Whether the county should provide the benefit to retirees is a fair question, but just yanking it from them with no notice whatsoever is very unfortunate.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cSome of those folks are in their 70s and facing health issues and now they are being told they have to find another provider. It’s not a reasonable, prudent thing to do.”<\/p>\n

Health care reform in the USA is a topic that is likely to run and run, especially amongst local government which provides or subsidises health insurance for its employees and former employees.<\/p>\n

The other dissenter on the Commission, Duncan Webb echoed his colleague\u2019s words saying: “I opposed taking away the benefit for the retirees that were already receiving them. I was not opposed to prospectively eliminating it.\u201d<\/p>\n

He continued: \u201cI was still interested in getting rid of long term liability, but I wasn’t in favour of taking it from retirees who were already receiving it – that’s why I voted against it.”<\/p>\n

Defending the measure however Commissioner Matt Shaheen said: “We just made [the county’s participation] zero, the plan is still there but the county isn’t going to pay for it. We gave the people who have retired and signed up a couple of months to make plans for the change we just made today.\u201d<\/p>\n

It seems this is one decision that is likely to go to court.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Public spending cut backs in one United State\u2019s county has been attacked as being mean spirited. It seems Collins County in Texas has approved a $90 million spending cut on health insurance, but at the expense of 30 retired workers. What\u2019s more the Commissioners who cut the budget did so without giving any of the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":888008809,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[191,576,575],"class_list":["post-1165","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-health-insurance","tag-health-care-reform","tag-state-funding","tag-state-government-cuts"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t