– Walter Esler is a member of AFSCME Retired and an activist.
Thousands of retired Illinois teachers, civil servants, and university staff will soon be seeing their health coverage deductions cut in half.
Illinois Department of Central Management Services(CMS) has rescinded an emergency rule doubling retiree health coverage premiums. The rollback came after SUAA Director Linda Brooks contacted State Officials. The rule increasing premiums had gone into effect on July 1 of this year. After Brooks made contact, Aaron Maduf, attorney for SUAA followed up with a legal analysis of the recent Kanerva decision. A discussion followed.
The result is today’s rollback.
The decision is welcome news to retirees, some of whom saw their checks actually decrease when the old rule went into effect. Retirees had been promised paid health coverage with 20 years of service or better, but self identified “pension reformers” had campaigned for several years for cut backs on previously earned pension benefits. Now the courts are reversing pension reform.
Fred Klonsky 
What about the 1% we are still paying? If the 2% roll back was justified, why wasn’t the 1% rolled back at the same time?
The reason that only the July 1, 2014 increase was rolled back has to do with a technical feature of SB1313 and how it was rolled out. The legislature simply decides how much the want to pay for retiree health coverage, enacts the appropriation, then CMS is informed. CMS then has to decide how much health coverage the appropriation can buy. The retirees are then told they have to make up the difference. CMS publishes the new “Emergency Rule” and JCAR has 90 days to react.
The unions were able to negotiate temporary limits on the process. That’s why the 1% – 2%, 2% – 4% set up. With the lawsuits, everything went into escrow. The unions had negotiated a (merciful) temporary respite. REALLY BIG healthcare deductions were in the works. This was the best the unions could do at that point in time. Negotiate and hope the courts would rule in our favor. That’s why, I think, we wouldn’t have done what SUAA did. We were telling our members to sit tight, stay with the negotiated deal, wait till the courts decide. If we win we get our money back.
SUAA, on the other hand, isn’t a union, at least not in the usual sense, and I don’t think they were party to the deal. They were free to act and they did. They questioned the new emergency rule and got it rescinded.
The case is still before the courts so this is a beginning. I expect it will all be rolled back once the court case is settled. I consider this great news because from the beginning I was told the health insurance provisions were our weakest link in the fight to keep our pensions, so it looks good for our pensions and cost of living increases when the court decides that issue.
Really? Do folks still believe retired teachers don’t pay for their health insurance? I pay quite a bit each month. State employees and legislators may get free coverage after 20 years but NOT retired educators.