Governor Walker and his tools…Yesterday the second half of changes to Wisconsin state employee benefits were announced and they ain’t pretty.
The first half of the benefits changes were bad enough—a 12.6% cut in pay which would go towards health insurance. Well, now it is even worse:
Depending on the policy and the size of an employee's family, the changes could amount to anywhere from $200 to several thousand dollars in additional spending per year for health care coverage.
Changes to the state's "uniform benefits" plan, for example, include a 10 percent co-pay until out-of-pocket expenses total $500 for an individual and $1,000 for a family.
Visits to the emergency room will increase from $60 to $75, an amount that cannot be applied to the out-of-pocket maximum. As is the case now, preventive care, such as physicals and well-baby checkups, will not require a co-pay.
So not only do government workers have to take a huge hit to their paychecks, they also now have to pay far more for co-pays…I don’t know about you but $500 to a $1000 is a lot of money to most folks working in the public sector. Hell, it is a lot of money to me.
I am not sure how cutting pay and benefits to the people who drive the economy is going to help the economy. The GOP needs to realize that giving tax breaks to the “job creators” is not going to a damn thing. The only way the “job creators” are going to add jobs is if and when they start moving product out the door. You keep cutting the pay of the people who buy those products…and no product moves out the door and no jobs get added.