MEA Votes

Think that HB 5345, the proposed mandatory health plan for public employees, will save hundreds of millions of dollars and ensure everyone has coverage? Well, you might want to think again, based on experiences in New Jersey and North Carolina.

Similar plans in other states have met with skyrocketing costs and mismanagement -- leading many to wonder how different the so-called "Michigan Health Benefits Program" could possibly be.

In New Jersey, media reports earlier this year clearly show that simply putting everyone into a bigger plan doesn't save money or control costs. They're considering having to go back to taxpayers and employees to deal with higher than anticipated premiums.

Which is exactly what North Carolina had to do, with taxpayers there bailing out the mismanaged fund to the tune of $678 million over the next two years due to mismanagement and bad projections. Can we really expect the plan here to do any better, especially given that our state government can't even get our budget balanced?

Learn more about the North Carolina bailout and similar horror stories from other state-run public employee health programs on the MEA Web site.