Georgia
Related: About this forumGov. Deal to eliminate health coverage for thousands of state employees
From Better Georgia:
After years of inflicting devastating K-12 budget cuts on Georgia schools, Gov. Deal has set his sights on new targets in public education -- bus drivers, cafeteria workers and other non-faculty school employees.
Buried on page 137 of Deals new budget proposal is a call to eliminate health insurance for non-certified public school employees.
If Gov. Deal gets his way, the Georgians we entrust with safely transporting and feeding our kids wont be able to see a doctor when they need to.
SIGN HERE: STOP Gov. Deal from stripping 11,500 school employees of health coverage.
http://act.bettergeorgia.org/sign/school_employees_health_care/?t=2&akid=3002.58622.rIoDU0
As the AJC reported Friday, Better Georgias petition to protect school workers health coverage is the fastest growing petition weve had in more than three years of advocacy.
Georgians know how wrong Gov. Deal is on this issue, and lawmakers are listening.
They work hard for our children and have earned health care coverage.
Now is the time to act. If you have already signed the petition, please share it with friends.
Tell Gov. Deal and Georgia lawmakers that our school employees deserve health coverage.
Together, we can stand up for Georgias bus drivers and school workers. But you must take action now.
WHAT YOU CAN DO NOW: Sign our petition telling Gov. Deal to keep his hands off of school employees health insurance. Once youve signed the petition, use the power of your social network to spread the word. Share our petition on Facebook to make sure that your friends and family know that health coverage for our school bus drivers, cafeteria workers and other non-faculty employees is under attack.
http://act.bettergeorgia.org/sign/school_employees_health_care/?t=2&akid=3002.58622.rIoDU0
brer cat
(26,398 posts)groundloop
(12,334 posts)I also sent off an email to my teabagger state rep. I have no doubt I'll hear back from him explaining how imperative it is to do this and allow Deal to trim the state budget, at which time I'll let off a lot of steam and frustration in the follow up email back to him.
yeoman6987
(14,449 posts)Five years from now, everyone will be under ACA. We just need to get more of the public on it. It is the only way to have it work. I am surprised you find this a bad thing. ACA is pretty good so far.
starroute
(12,977 posts)I doubt it's robust enough for "everybody" to be under it. If this is the shape of the future, we might as well go to single payer now.
raccoon
(31,480 posts)Bus drivers, cafeteria workers, etc., don't make fantastic salaries.
CottonBear
(21,615 posts)So, low wage workers will not be able to get health Insurance.
I live in Georgia. Deal is evil and corrupt.
groundloop
(12,334 posts)He pushed for (and got) legislation which would make it impossible for any future Georgia governor to expand Medicaid without the approval of the legislature. That means that if by chance we ever are lucky enough to elect a Democratic governor he still would have to convince our gerrymandered legislature to expand Medicaid (and that ain't gonna' happen).
So yes, taking away insurance benefits from these workers is a huge kick in the ass for them. They likely won't be able to get Medicaid and even if they do get insurance on the national exchange it will be more costly than what they had through the State Health Benefits Plan.
sakabatou
(43,195 posts)blkmusclmachine
(16,149 posts)kacekwl
(7,587 posts)to vote people. I wonder how many people who will be hurt by this voted ? Sometimes the only thing to do is let the wall crumble and fall before people work to rebuild it.
groundloop
(12,334 posts)I attended a meeting last night hosted by the Georgia Association of Educators (GAE - www.gae.org) in which more information about this issue was presented. There is strong evidence that Nathan Deal's long term goal is to privatize as much of the school system as possible. It is apparent that after cafeteria workers and bus drivers are stripped of benefits that their jobs will be outsourced to several well connected contracting companies, which of course means lower paid and lesser qualified people will be driving our kids to school and providing them with food. Also, if this isn't stopped now then next years budget will outsource janitorial services in the schools.
Here's another petition to sign, this one is hosted by the GAE:
https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/non-certified-school-employees-health-benefits