500 Teachers March on Frankfort

"A-B-C-D-E-F-G, Fletcher's plan is killing me!" teacher's chanted as they marched on Frankfort this morning in an effort to get the state lawmakers to roll back the changes in healthcare made by the Fletcher administration. Kentucky teachers are already paying the highest rate in the United States for family health coverage. Under the new health plan thousands of current and retired state workers face additional increases in health insurance premiums, deductibles, prescription medicines and out-of-pocket medical expenses. One of the controversial provisions of the new coverage is the replacement of co-pays with co-insurance for hospital covreage. This measure would leave patients paying a percentage of cost rather than a fixed co-pay.

While most of us have faced increases in our health insurance the average person has not had to take the 170% increase 229,000 state employees, retirees and their dependents have had to squeeze into their budgets over the last five years. We can hardly be surprised that the hard-pressed teachers are planning to strike. A 1% pay increase doesn't begin to offset the cost of the new insurance plan. It is time the education governor made good on his promises to teachers. He may have forgotten those promises to bring wages and benefits closer to the national average but the teachers haven't.