Gov. Deal to eliminate health coverage for thousands of state employees

[groundloop]

From Better Georgia:

After years of inflicting devastating K-12 budget cuts on Georgia schools, Gov. Deal has set his sights on new targets in public education -- bus drivers, cafeteria workers and other non-faculty school employees.

Buried on page 137 of Deal’s new budget proposal is a call to eliminate health insurance for “non-certified public school employees.”

If Gov. Deal gets his way, the Georgians we entrust with safely transporting and feeding our kids won’t be able to see a doctor when they need to.

SIGN HERE: STOP Gov. Deal from stripping 11,500 school employees of health coverage.

http://act.bettergeorgia.org/sign/school_employees_health_care/?t=2&akid=3002.58622.rIoDU0

As the AJC reported Friday, Better Georgia’s petition to protect school workers’ health coverage is the fastest growing petition we’ve had in more than three years of advocacy.

Georgians know how wrong Gov. Deal is on this issue, and lawmakers are listening.

They work hard for our children and have earned health care coverage.

Now is the time to act. If you have already signed the petition, please share it with friends.

Tell Gov. Deal and Georgia lawmakers that our school employees deserve health coverage.

Together, we can stand up for Georgia’s bus drivers and school workers. But you must take action now.

WHAT YOU CAN DO NOW: Sign our petition telling Gov. Deal to keep his hands off of school employees’ health insurance. Once you’ve signed the petition, use the power of your social network to spread the word. Share our petition on Facebook to make sure that your friends and family know that health coverage for our school bus drivers, cafeteria workers and other non-faculty employees is under attack.


http://act.bettergeorgia.org/sign/school_employees_health_care/?t=2&akid=3002.58622.rIoDU0

[brer cat]

1. Signed. nt

[groundloop]

2. Thanks.

I also sent off an email to my teabagger state rep. I have no doubt I'll hear back from him explaining how imperative it is to do this and allow Deal to trim the state budget, at which time I'll let off a lot of steam and frustration in the follow up email back to him.

[yeoman6987]

3. They will be eligible for ACA which is the goal of getting all Americans under this program

Five years from now, everyone will be under ACA. We just need to get more of the public on it. It is the only way to have it work. I am surprised you find this a bad thing. ACA is pretty good so far.

[starroute]

4. ACA was not intended as an excuse for employers to drop coverage

I doubt it's robust enough for "everybody" to be under it. If this is the shape of the future, we might as well go to single payer now.

[raccoon]

7. Also under ACA they would probably pay more than under the group plan.

Bus drivers, cafeteria workers, etc., don't make fantastic salaries.

[CottonBear]

8. Georgia did not expand Medicaid.

So, low wage workers will not be able to get health Insurance.

I live in Georgia. Deal is evil and corrupt.

[groundloop]

9. Beyond that, Deal made it impossible for any future governor to expand Medicaid

He pushed for (and got) legislation which would make it impossible for any future Georgia governor to expand Medicaid without the approval of the legislature. That means that if by chance we ever are lucky enough to elect a Democratic governor he still would have to convince our gerrymandered legislature to expand Medicaid (and that ain't gonna' happen).

So yes, taking away insurance benefits from these workers is a huge kick in the ass for them. They likely won't be able to get Medicaid and even if they do get insurance on the national exchange it will be more costly than what they had through the State Health Benefits Plan.

[sakabatou]

5. Bastard

[blkmusclmachine]

6. ,

,

[kacekwl]

10. Really shows the need

to vote people. I wonder how many people who will be hurt by this voted ? Sometimes the only thing to do is let the wall crumble and fall before people work to rebuild it.

[Gin]

11. Signed

[groundloop]

12. More information and another petition to sign

I attended a meeting last night hosted by the Georgia Association of Educators (GAE - www.gae.org) in which more information about this issue was presented. There is strong evidence that Nathan Deal's long term goal is to privatize as much of the school system as possible. It is apparent that after cafeteria workers and bus drivers are stripped of benefits that their jobs will be outsourced to several well connected contracting companies, which of course means lower paid and lesser qualified people will be driving our kids to school and providing them with food. Also, if this isn't stopped now then next years budget will outsource janitorial services in the schools.

Here's another petition to sign, this one is hosted by the GAE:

https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/non-certified-school-employees-health-benefits