Heck no we won't have seconds
Submitted by bniolet on November 18, 2009 - 9:39am.
State Rep. Hugh Holliman didn't have to resort to National Guard troops to defuse a protest at a recent fundraiser.
Holliman's event at a Raleigh restaurant was to come under withering protest from members of the State Employees Association of N.C. who are unhappy with Holliman's support for financial fixes to the State Health Plan that shift some costs to employees.
Four to five protesters actually showed on the cold and rainy Friday night, said Holliman, a Lexington Democrat. Holliman sent them food.
"We put a tray together and sent it out," he said.
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Stop in the name of health
Submitted by bniolet on November 4, 2009 - 12:49pm.
The State Employees Association of N.C. has launched a Web site and mail campaign intended to counter Blue Cross and Blue Shield of N.C.'s efforts on health care.
SEANC's campaign is a reaction to a mailer by Blue Cross, which urged people to lobby U.S. Sen. Kay Hagan to oppose the public option for health insurance included in Democratic health reform bills. The flyer followed a premium increase by the company, which didn't exactly help their message.
SEANC says, "Stop," with its Web site, stopbcbs.com.
Pitt leaders unhappy with BCBS
Submitted by bniolet on November 3, 2009 - 2:41pm.The Pitt County Board of Commissioners voted to send a letter to Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina chastising the state's largest insurance provider over a mailer intended to whip up opposition to a public-run option to private health insurance.
The (Greenville) Daily Reflector reports the commission voted Monday to send the letter.
The county buys insurance coverage from Blue Cross and Blue Shield, and Commissioner Tom Johnson said the company should not use taxpayer money from Pitt County to send a partisan mailing, which included a card meant to put pressure on Sen. Kay Hagan, a Greensboro Democrat who is still considering her position on the public option issue.
Blue Cross and Blue Shield spokesman Lew Borman told Dome that the insurer wants health care reform, but believes the public option will hurt consumers.
"Our point was these post cards won't have a significant impact on premiums, but we think some of the proposals in Washington could have a significant impact," Borman said. "We feel like we have an obligation to our customers to raise these questions."
That mailer has led some to send letters in support of the public option. The State Employees Association of N.C. is planning to hold a news conference Wednesday to announce a new Web site and campaign intended to counter Blue Cross.
Workers get skinny on smoking, weight
Submitted by bniolet on October 5, 2009 - 7:28am.Some 600,000 state employees, teachers and retirees should have received last week a packet describing the State Health Plan's new Wellness Initiative.
That's the program that says health insurance will be more expensive for smokers and the obese. Plan officials had an Oct. 1 deadline to get some information to members. The initiatives affect some 560,000 members — everyone except for those on Medicare.
The smoking initiative, which would include saliva tests for a sample of members to ensure nonsmokers really don't light up, goes into effect next year. The weight initiative, in which members must have a Body Mass Index lower than 40, ten points higher than the "obese" threshold, takes effect in 2011.
For both programs, trying to quit or to lose weight is enough to qualify participants for the cheaper insurance plan.
"What we know from the state division of public health is unhealthy lifestyle behaviors such as tobacco use and weight management, they are the two leading causes of preventable death in North Carolina," said Anne Rogers, director of integrated health management for the State Health Plan. "There's a reason we chose these two particular lifestyle behaviors."
The legislature instituted the initiatives to help shore up the troubled plan. The idea is that smokers and obese people are a greater health risk and therefore more expensive for an insurance plan to cover.
Union blasts SEANC leaders
Submitted by bniolet on September 22, 2009 - 3:17pm.A national labor union has stepped into the Wake County school board elections to endorse candidates and fling barbs at State Employees Association head Dana Cope.
UNITE HERE, which represents hospitality and textile workers, issued a press release today endorsing Rita Rakestraw in District 1 and Karen Simon in District 7 for their support of Wake's school diversity policy, T. Keung Hui reports on his Wake Ed blog.
UNITE HERE said it felt "morally obligated to get involved" because Cope, executive director of the State Employees Association of N.C., and Ardis Watkins, legislative director of SEANC, had formed the Children's PAC to back candidates who support neighborhood schools. UNITE HERE said Cope and Watkins "have done their union and the union movement a real disservice."
SEANC is affiliated with the Service Employees International Union.
Cope and Watkins couldn't be reached for comment this afternoon.
The Children's PAC officially shut down last week. But the group plans to work with the Wake Schools Community Alliance in the school board races.
Update: Cope has responded to UNITE HERE's news release.
"Obviously UNITE HERE, which is a Washington D.C. union, has no clue with what's going on in Wake County," Cope said. "The Wake County school board is not progressive in its policies. It's deterimental to families."
To illustrate his point, Cope gave the example of Southeast Raleigh children being bused to Brier Creek Elementary in northwest Raleigh. He said Brier Creek was too far away for his SEANC members in Southeast Raleigh to be involved at the school.
SEANC elects officers
Submitted by bniolet on September 16, 2009 - 6:41am.The State Employees Association of North Carolina elected officers at its annual convention last week.
The association has 55,000 members and 850 delegates voted on officers at the convention. The one-year terms begin Oct. 1.
* President: Tony Smith of Morganton, a maintenance supervisor with the Department of Correction’s Foothills Correctional Institution, with 17 years of state service. (re-elected)
* First Vice President: Pat Reighard of Blowing Rock, professor emeritus of communication at Appalachian State University, retired with 30 years of state service. (re-elected)
* Second Vice President: Charles Johnson of Raleigh, a correctional captain with the Department of Correction’s Central Prison, with 17 years of state service.
* Treasurer: Cheryl Moon of Knightdale, a retired Department of Motor Vehicles hearings officer, with 30 years of state service. (re-elected)
Cope ends Children's PAC
Submitted by janestancill on September 11, 2009 - 12:19pm.You can soon say goodbye to the Children's PAC.
Leaders of the group have notified the Wake County Board of Elections that they're shutting down the political action committee, reports Keung Hui. Dana Cope, who founded the group following this year's contentious student reassignment fight, says they've decided to work with the Wake Schools Community Alliance.
Cope, who is also executive director of the State Employees Association of N.C., says they'll officially announce next week that they're endorsing the same school board candidates as the WSCA. He said individual members of the soon-to-be-former PAC have been and will continue to raise money for candidates.
"It doesn't quite make sense to replicate a web site, to replicate a fundraising arm," Cope said. "Why don't we just support what's already in place?"
Cope said they formed the group with the plan on being independent. There was talk of raising $100,000 by getting $1,000 from 1,000 people.
Even though the group hadn't filed anything since the initial organization report, Cope said three people in the Bleinheim Woods area of Raleigh have already held fundraisers.
Health care goes round and round
Submitted by markjohnson on August 10, 2009 - 12:24pm.With the critics of President Barack Obama’s health care proposals having finished their bus tour, supporters of the president’s plan will begin theirs.
Beginning tonight in Greenville, the State Employees Association of North Carolina will host a series of town meetings on health insurance reform across the state, Rob Christensen reports.
“State employees are concerned about health care,” SEANC executive director Dana Cope in a statement. “Many of them can’t afford to cover their spouses or children on the State Health Plan, adding to the growing number of uninsured North Carolinians.”
The tour by SEANC comes after the “Hands Off My Health Care” bus tour ended Saturday in Raleigh with a rally of 1,000 people. It was sponsored by the state chapter of Americans for Prosperity, a conservative advocacy group.
More after the jump.
SEANC to protest Blue Cross
Submitted by bniolet on July 13, 2009 - 3:29pm.The State Employees Association of North Carolina is planning a protest outside the corporate offices of Blue Cross and Blue Shield.
The protest is designed to put pressure on the insurer to support the public option in President Barack Obama's health reform plan.
Protestors are planning to gather on the frontage road outside the Blue Cross headquarters at 10 a.m. on Wednesday.
"SEANC is demanding that Blue Cross put North Carolina citizens first instead of fighting a public health care option that will provide affordability, choice and competition to Blue Cross' 72.5 percent market share in North Carolina," according to a news release from the association of some 55,000 state employees and retirees.
A Blue Cross spokesman said the company has created a Web site to explain its stance on health reform.
Blue Cross "has made it quite clear that we support health reform that covers everyone, promotes better care and controls costs," said spokesman Lew Borman. "We believe effective health care reform can be achieved without a government run plan. However, we believe that government has a role to play in assisting those who can't afford insurance on the private market."
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