This commentary is by John Perry, who worked for 30 years in the Vermont Department of Corrections, 27 of them as director of planning, before retiring in 2009.
An open letter to Gov. Phil Scott:
I have to say, Governor, that as a retired long-term Vermont state employee, I am deeply disappointed in your proposal to force a shift in the collectively bargained health care plan for the 8,000 of us from a perfectly adequate system to an undefined “plan” run by Cigna, a private, for-profit insurance company.
There are two problems with your plan. The first is a violation of the collective bargaining agreement with the state employees. The other problem is that the plan the administration wants is inadequate. Our current insurance is well known, reliable, predictable, excellent and adequate. We do not want to switch to one that is none of these.
I listened to your press conference late last month when you said, essentially, “Trust me, this is better for you.” If you think Cigna or any other profit-making company has our interests at heart, this link may illuminate.
The administration seems to believe that a labor agreement applies only when they want it to. They seem to believe that Cigna has only the interest of retirees at heart and ignore the fact that the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York has filed a civil health care fraud lawsuit against that company.
They also ignore that in 2016 the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services sanctioned Cigna for 16 months for “major systems failure.” They forbade Cigna from selling Medicare Part C and D plans. Cigna was cited for creating excessive out-of-pocket costs, denials, and delays for its Massachusetts customers.
Your administration seems to believe that retired state employees do not live in the “small towns and communities” you professed to want to help in your inaugural address to the Legislature. They seem to believe that some parts of Title 3 of Vermont law can be overridden at the whim of the executive.
3 V.S.A. § 479(a) is clear that Medicare-eligible state retirees must be covered by the same medical plan as current state employees. Same means same.
They seem to believe that people will flock to Vermont to fill jobs in government, health care, and the private sector despite the executive branch’s demonstrated wish to throw elders under the bus.
I am sure you are aware that Vermont vies with Maine as the state with the oldest population.
Governor, I am 79 years old. I am a veteran. I am disabled and homebound. I am prescribed by my neurologist a drug specific to multiple sclerosis, which keeps me out of a wheelchair. It is hugely expensive ($120 per day retail if I did not have insurance) but my health care team worked with Medicare and BlueCross BlueShield to cover it under my Vermont retirement coverage. It took a long time for them to approve it.
If I have to stop taking it because Cigna takes over our health care, I will most assuredly suffer a dramatic decline, and will likely require being placed in care.
Switching our retiree health insurance to a controversial company currently being sued for Medicare Advantage payment fraud by the U.S. Department of Justice is not the way to go about saving money.
Governor, this is not the way to say “Thank you for your service” to the thousands of Vermonters who spent their careers in public service.