

That $15000 health plan is going to have an $8000 deductible on top of your $3000 so the math is not so fuzzy.
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[quote user="Admin003"]
Senator Gleason’s statement is as follows:
Mr. Lieutenant Governor, I hope your child is doing better as well as your family.
Once again, we are continuing a trend that I think is unhealthy for our state. I have a great deal of faith and confidence in my local school boards, and I have an equal amount of confidence in those who negotiate on behalf of the collective bargaining units and on behalf of teachers and staff in our local schools. I think this is one more attempt to usurp a fair and balanced process.
I don’t believe our major concern is who pays for health care as much as how much it costs. Through this process, I haven’t seen a singular effort to reduce the cost of health care. That should be our first priority. How do we control the cost regardless of whether the school district or the individual is picking up that responsibility? Eventually, the families and the school districts themselves, the way this is parsed out, will not have the ability to provide the health care that we need. We look at Michigan schools and our youth and the tremendous issue with obesity. We look at the very drastic rise in diabetic concerns. We see all of these issues that are leading up to high health care costs. That should be our purpose today, not deciding who is going to pay for what. We are saying that we can determine the parsing out of this cost. I think we should do better than that. I think we should address what is making that cost rise annually.
Many of us represent some really tough school districts. I think we have heard when we were talking about usurping local control through the emergency financial legislation that was passed earlier this year that we are going to have a hard time finding teachers who are going to want to teach in these school districts. We know that the average starting salary for a teacher in our state is about $34,000. A lot of people have altered their career choices in recent times because of the job market. If your starting salary going into the education sector is about $34,000, you have a family and now you are going to say that the family’s obligation is going to be $11,000, that puts you in the lower $20,000 pay bracket. We are going to be paying our educators less; those whom many of us would hope would be the best people. We are going to reduce their take-home pay down to $23,000 in many cases. That is not the best choice. I want our best teachers, and I want them compensated with worthwhile compensation.
We shouldn’t be meddling in these local affairs. I think, once again, because we are overreaching our office obligations, we are really putting up some impediments to future decisions by our local communities. My “no” vote will be based on no cost-containment effort and once again usurping local control
[/quote] Hey John , 20% of a $15000.00 health plan is $3000.00 not $11000.00. This is not the first time I caught you with fuzzy math.
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[quote user="eb44345"]
I am a state employee in Michigan who will be directly affected by this bill. Even though it adversely affects me, I support the bill. Everyone I work with is stark-raving mad about it though.
We are over-paid here for what we do, and the health-care plan is Cadillac. I've taken the attitude that I should enjoy it while it lasts, but it's unsustainable. Government is bloated and inefficient.
There are a lot of really good people working here who care deeply about the community that they serve, but the expectations for compensation and benefits are really high. I see a lot of people thinking that just because they are a public employee then they are more noble than someone working in the private sector. Nonsense. I've always looked at it like, "If I did this exact same job in the private sector how much would I be paid?" Undoubtedly, it would be lower.
As to the argument that some have made that Republicans shouldn't be micromanaging things, it's perfectly fine for government to micromanage itself. Governments should be regulating themselves. All businesses regulate themselves in order to improve. Government should not be micromanaging the overall economy or private companies or individuals.
Government setting spending limits on itself is merely being prudent and responsible.
Some of us public employees stand with the taxpayers, so try not to lump us all together.
[/quote]
Very well said,I agree with everything you have written.
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