Below is a letter sent from a friend of mine to Steve Poizner, one of several Republicans running to replace the Schwarz. Poizner is California’s Insurance Commssioner; name of my friend is witheld for privacy reasons.

"To: Steve Poizner
Date: October 30, 2009

Re: Escondido Union School District

Steve,

I know you probably have your hands full in your campaign, but, as Insurance Commissioner, I need to share some troubling news with you for the Escondido Union School District in Escondido, California.

Escondido is a K-8 school district with 2000 employees and is facing now facing some of the most challenging choices for health insurance in the State of California.

A few years ago, our district left “VEBA” to join a self insurance group called the Fringe Benefits Consortium. I was union Vice President at the time and everyone thought it would give our employees wonderful choices between a PPO and Kaiser. But unbeknownst to us, VEBA had apparently given our district a poor rating based on excessive usage but refused to tell anyone.

Is that a common practice? If so, why?

And as we entered the PPO, we suddenly found ourselves, due to serious surgeries and illnesses, with 125 % usage. Of course, the district was only funding 100 % of our plan and now has run up a five million dollar deficit.

The school district decided to go out to bid again, but . . . no HMO
company would take us because of our situation.

Since the state of California has huge deficits and is financially
compromised, our school board is alarmed about future state funding and has now chosen to raise our PPO rates from zero to $600 per month to attempt to cover health care expenses!

Our classified employees have had to take a 25 % pay cut, and now face $600 a month payments to continue their health care. They can’t afford it and now it looks like between 1000 -1800 employees will be going to Kaiser. (I don’t think Kaiser is even prepared for it!)

As a retired teacher, I am just shocked at our turn of events and the human condition being affected by all of this. And we have dozens of employees with cancer who are in treatment, who cannot afford the huge increase in payments, yet are terrified to change to Kaiser in the middle of life threatening illnesses.

My friend, Lane, a wonderful high school literature teacher who taught for over thirty years in the Escondido High School District, just retired, only to find out that he has Myeloma and is now in chemotherapy. Even though his wife continues to teach in our district, he is now on a fixed income, and cannot afford another $600 a month out of pocket, which does not include the $30 co-pays or the ten percent of services covered. Does he change to Kaiser in the midst of cancer treatment?

Would you?

Steve, I would hope you would find time to respond to our school district dilemma in the near future. All of our employees must make dramatic, and in some cases, perceived life threatening decisions in the next two weeks.

Having a proactive commissioner sure would comfort our employees in times of health and financial crises.

I can be reached anytime and can travel, if needed.
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Now can anyone tell me how either the House or Senate bills would assist in this situation in the next couple of months? and for those wondering what VEBA is : http://www.vebaonline.com/home/home.htm

And just think about the provisions related to ’self insured’.