CCSNJ Weighs In On Bills to Change Public Employee Health Care Systems
Friday, March 27, 2009

M E M O R A N D U M

TO: Members of the Pension and Health Benefits Review Commission

FROM: Kathleen A. Davis, Executive Vice President & COO

RE: A-2558 (Lampitt)

A-2584 (O’Scanlon/Lampitt)

A-3710 (Quigley/Johnson/Vas)

DATE: March 27, 2009

The Chamber of Commerce Southern New Jersey would like to offer its comments on A-2558 (Lampitt), A-2584 (O’Scanlon/Lampitt), and A-3710 (Quigley/Johnson/Vas), all which would legislate changes to the public employee health care systems.

A-2558 (Lampitt) would make part-time elected and appointed officials ineligible for publicly paid health care benefits if they are in any way eligible for other health care coverage. Although we commend Assemblywoman Lampitt for attempting to curb the amount of public employees enrolled in state health care coverage, the Chamber believes that part-time elected and appointed officials should not be eligible for public health care coverage. These health insurance benefits are extremely expensive and funded by taxpayers. Now is the time to scale back on these benefits and provide them only for career public employees.

The Chamber supports A-2584 (O’Scanlon/Lampitt), which would prohibit State, local government, or board of education officers or employees from receiving dual health care benefit coverage. The Chamber believes this proposal makes sense and would set an example that government is serious about finding methods to control state spending; however, as stated above, these health care benefits should only be available to full time workers.

Lastly, A-3710 (Quigley/Johnson/Vas) requires private health insurance carriers, which include hospitals, medical and health service corporations, individual, small/large employer group commercial insurers, and health maintenance organizations, as well as the public SHBP and SEHBP to provide coverage for interpreter services for persons who have limited English proficiency or deafness. The Chamber continues to oppose any mandated health benefit, which adds to the cost of health insurance premiums. Further, the cost of this measure should be quantified by the Mandated Health Benefits Study Commission. We respectfully ask you to not recommend this bill for enactment until the Commission has had the opportunity to review it.

All of our positions stated above are consistent with the recommendations issued by the Chamber’s Board Council on Responsible Government Spending. These reports pointed out the disparities between benefits received by public employees and their private counterparts. The high cost of public employee benefits are borne by taxpayers, and it is our belief that getting the cost of these benefits under control can help offset the need to increase taxes in the future. The Chamber remains committed to working with our policymakers to make legitimate and comprehensive reforms to public employee benefits to save taxpayer dollars.