Under Obamacare, we’re all going to become metallurgists of healthcare, bronze at 60 percent, silver at 70 percent, gold at 80 percent and platinum at 90 percent regarding coverage under insurance plans.
The stark contrast between public employees and the rest of us is becoming increasingly clear, public employment must stop being a platinum option in a bronze country.
Depending on what you’re reading, there’s a story out there about Federal workers trying to get an exemption from Obamacare. Different publications have different angles from the “prove it angle” of “We haven’t heard anything about secret meetings,” to the strict denial angle, “No such thing exists.”
It is put forth here that public employment needs to stop being a glamour job, with public employees having benefits packages, employment security, vacation and pensions that are platinum compared to the country that pays for them which more than ever is reducing many to the bronze level.
First, it’s time for outside consultants to perform non-partisan assessments of federal employment compared to employment for other citizens in terms of job security, salary, benefits and vacation. While these studies have been done before and have concluded that federal employment for most individuals is far more lucrative than similar private sector employment, pursuant to an agreement, this should be done again with policy changes made upon completion of such study.
Here’s why…regardless of whether they get yet another exemption or additional consideration enacted by themselves for themselves, public employees have been enjoying years of superior benefits to the rest of us. Go no further than Federaltimes.com and their May 9, 2013 report on “How Obamacare affects your FEHBP Plan.” In that article you’ll find that the article states, among other things that:
“The law now requires plans to offer certain preventive care and screenings. FEHBP plans have long covered many of these.”
“Historically, FEHBP plans haven’t imposed lifetime dollar limits on any health condition or kind of service. Beginning in 2013, the law requires this of all plans.
Second, public employees need to face the same consequences that individuals face in the private sector for their conduct. Go no further than the fresh images we have of IRS partying, or the older images of secret service using business time to see prostitutes.
Similarly to Dennis Kozlowski, of Tyco fame, with the video available from lavish parties he made using other people’s money, and for which he was sentenced to eight-and-a-third to 25 years in prison and was fined 100s of millions for convictions for grand larceny, conspiracy, falsifying business records and violating business law (see Money.cnn.com/2005/09/19/news “Kozlowski gets up to 25 years,” by Grace Wong), public employees should be fined and jailed.
Steve Miller’s “resignation” and Lois Lerner’s paid leave, as well as Sarah Hill Ingram’s promotion seem hardly on par. As we watched hearings that should have had a ticker showing how many taxpayer dollars were being expended in Congressional salaries for those participating in such hearings for each minute of the hearings, we should consider adding those sums to the tab of those responsible.
Like Medicare fraud, government action should shift from pay-and-chase to prevent-and-prosecute. Fraud that singlehandedly has cost insurance companies billions of dollars as well as the Federal government over the years has relied on going after perpetrators after the fact which has frequently resulted in fines that pale against profits earned by perpetrators , leaving taxpayers paying for the difference between the amounts collected versus those paid for the prosecution.
Promises of a changing policy at Medicare to one of taking preventive steps and prosecuting is designed to relieve some of that unnecessary long-term expense (that has in part left lazy politicians selling the angle that only by cannibalizing Medicare and the benefits workers have paid in for their lifetimes can they solve their money problems.)
Finally, while a line-item veto obviously is not available to taxpayers, when too little money is put forth as an excuse for negligence or worse, any politician who argues for a bigger budget should be subject to an outside review that includes cost-saving strategies in order to address the “need.” Since when is too little money a legitimate excuse for negligence? When was the last time a parent could say that he or she couldn’t afford daycare so they left their children at home alone?
Yet in federal employee land, we need go no further than the Benghazi hearings and the IRS hearings to find public employees arguing that their failures could be fixed with more of our money. (Hillary Clinton: “So, it is our responsibility to make sure they have the resources they need to do everything we can to reduce the risks.” During the IRS hearings in the context of a question asking how to prevent future abuse, Steven Miller replied, “A bigger budget.”)
Good for us that we’re finally getting real about public employees who have been using us as their “servants.”
Transparency and outside review, two of the hallmarks of Obamacare (outside review for claims that are denied as per section 2719), parity of laws governing acts for public employees with those faced by private-sector employees, parity of conditions of employment for public employees with private-sector employees, especially regarding benefits will all help contribute to government that is more than giving lip service to fiscal responsibility.
