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HIP/GHI Concerns

To the Editor:

As a member of Local 372 of District Court 37, I recently attended a hearing in Manhattan on Emblem Health's application to convert a for-profit entity. (Emblem is the successor to the merger of HIP and GHL, the two companies that provide medical insurance to 93 percent of NYC workers.)

The testimony made it clear that the conversion would generate hundreds of millions (and perhaps billions) of dollars from a public offering of Emblem's stock. At present, Emblem proposes that the state receive the bulk of the proceeds of this offering. Apparently, the city will receive none of the proceeds and I didn't hear anything about our municipal unions or employees receiving any benefit from the conversion. In fact, I was amazed at how few union leaders attended the hearing.

I was also amazed that Randi Weingarten, United Federation of Teachers president and chairperson of the MLC, asked why the city has taken legal action seeking to block the merger of GHI and HIP into Emblem and ultimately the conversion. Although, not a lawyer, I can emphatically answer that question. The city wants to share in the wealth that it and its employees have created and it wants to protect its and our interests in fair-priced and high-quality health care.

The real question is: Why aren't union leaders supporting the city? The impact of the merger and conversion on city employees will be great. Deputy Mayor Ed Skyler testified that every 1-percent increase in premiums costs the city $32.9 million, and he anticipated a 9-percent annual increase for the foreseeable future. That's $400 million a year. Unions should support the city in its attempts to control the proceeds, but we also need our union leaders to make sure the city does not pass increases, if the conversion does occur, to the unions and their members in the form of higher co-pays.

I don't have the information to know for sure whether conversion is good or bad for municipal unions and union members. However, as a member of Local 372, one of the largest municipal unions, I have deep concerns about increases in co-pays, shrinkage in coverage or lower-quality health care. Our local needs to ask tough questions; our members are owed that. Many of our members are the working poor, who brave the elements and working conditions in exchange for health benefits for themselves and their families.

Are we prepared to trust Emblem's executives on their word that merger and conversion won't raise prices and/or lower quality? No disrespect meant, but let's see it in writing first. True leadership understands the members are tired of broken promises, and our union leaders need to protect our interest.

JESSE TEITLER