The Ypsi City Desk has caught wind of something really smelly in the dispute between Ypsilanti teachers, their support staff and the Ypsilanti Board of Education. Teachers are protesting the Ypsilanti School Board's choice, in order to save the district money, to change insurance providers from the current Blue Cross Blue Shield to Aetna.
OK, it's a time honored dispute of saving non existent tax money for taxpayers vs. having the hassle of perhaps getting lesser coverage and having to change doctors. Both are very valid reasons to have a strong opinion. It's deeper than what kind of trouble Lindsay Lohan is in this week.
But here's the thing and YSD is trying to get confirmation on. It has been suggested that the School Board has hired a consultant at pretty good money to deal with the insurance issue who is ALSO a former Aetna employee.
Is this true? Come on, this shouldn't be how we do business in Ypsilanti. These are your neighbors money or not.
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3 comments:
The consultant is bull, but as far as switching insurance providers...workers without contracts and union representation have had to deal with this for years. It is not newsworthy. All of a sudden teachers may have to switch providers and the public is supposed to feel empathy for them? I don't think so. In the real world, if your employer jerks you around, find another job.
It is unfortunate, and I have lived through this personally, but it is just a fact of today's working world.
Yes, we here at the Ypsi City Desk have also been through a mandated change in providers. It's not fun but it IS a new fact of life which is why we only concentrated on the sleazyuse of a consultant. Sure we all want our own doctors all the time, also we sure want drive trough nickel beer but that's not gonna happen.
Not disagreeing with ya anonymous and thank you for being so open and honest and bringing some much needed context to the discussion...
But it raises a larger issue -- one that Johnny rightly pointed out in the original post, which is: not only are these folks our own neighbors, they also are the folks who teach our children. I would like for them to be well taken care of.
Sure, people deal with provider changes in this modern world and, sure, I'm certain that, for the most part, it's a lousy experience. But should we begrudge those with union representation the opportunity to put the power of the union into action when they feel like they are getting the shaft? After all, they don't have a contract, but they are still showing up for work. Seems to me they're merely trying to get the word out.
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