Department of Irony, Sick Leave Edition

In Massachusetts, a legislator wants to require private businesses to give employees seven sick days a year. I can easily envision a rash of the flu near the end of each year, as people realize they haven’t used up their “free” sick leave.

Why is that? People respond to incentives available to them, as demonstrated by a large number of state employees who are burning up sick leave. From the Boston Herald:

Others told the Herald state workers fearing the next round of layoffs are using up their sick time now before they receive a pink slip. “People aren’t dumb,” one official said.

Should sick-leave minimums actually be enacted, it will be another case of a government dictating the scope of compensation plans.

Nevada Public Employee Plan Falls Short

A health insurance plan covering public employees in Nevada needs another $100 million to come into balance, the Las Vegas Sun reports.

The big question: Who’s going to pay? Will the public be taxed more? Employees and retirees be asked to pay more in premiums? Will benefits be cut back?

Public Employee Insurance May Blow Through Tax Cap

New Jersey has a new cap on property taxes. But there’s a big loophole, which includes health insurance for government employees.

High-deductible Policies in Action

Public schools in Michigan could save $26 billion over a 10-year period if its employees switched from low-deductible health insurance policies to high-deductible policies that were matched with health savings accounts. That’s the calculation of the Mackinac Center for Public Policy. The center points out the benefits to employees: “money [in an HSA] stays with the employee, even if he or she changes jobs, and contributions, earned interest and health expense withdrawals are all tax-free. The money can be used to pay any qualified medical expense, and after the employee turns 65, can be used for anything, just like a traditional IRA.

High Insurance Costs Force Teacher Layoffs

Health insurance is the invisible component of employee compensation, but it’s having a large impact in the Milwaukee Public School System.

The Wisconsin Policy Research Institute comments on a conflict between the teacher union and district administration, which stems in part from health insurance:

the teachers union refuses to compromise a little on a ludicrously expensive and generous health care plan.  If the union would agree to switch to a slightly cheaper (though still excellent) plan, the district would save some $48 million – and about 480 teachers’ jobs.

The insurance in question is most likely expensive because it is not true insurance, but insurance coupled with pre-purchased health care. That combination, seen throughout the economy, has contributed to soaring premiums. In this case, it means that a number of teachers will be out of work.

Baltimore Going Broke from Health Benefits

Baltimore City is growing broke due to its spending on pensions and health benefits for employees. The Maryland Public Policy Institute’s Marta H. Mossburg says, “Without [employee] concessions, the city could spend half of its budget on health care and pensions within the next decade.” As it is, those two items take up 19% of the city’s operating budget.

Delaware Says to State Employees: Start Paying for Infertility Treatments

In a move to cut costs, Delaware will start requiring people with insurance through the state employee program to pay one-quarter of the cost of infertility treatments.

New Hampshire to Enact Retiree Medical Trust for State Workers

New Hampshire has created a retiree medical trust for its state government employees.

Here’s how it will work:

Under the plan — which is not yet in effect — government workers would have the chance to make tax-free contributions from their paychecks to accounts managed by their unions. The employees’ money would be pooled together and invested. And both the investment returns and the monthly distributions paid to retirees for health care expenses such as insurance premiums, doctor co-pays and prescription drugs would be tax-free.

It’s been described as a “supercharged health savings account.”

Congress May Fine Itself but not State Health Plans

We already knew that members of Congress and their staff might already be uninsured, except those staffers who wrote the health insurance law and exempted themselves from its requirements. We did not know, however, that if a Congressional employee applies for subsidies, it could trigger fines of $50 million a year for Congress.

This is all highly entertaining but slightly meaningless since the federal government would be paying itself with money it doesn’t have.

More important for North Carolina, counties, cities, and those who care about the Constitution is what requirements the health care law imposes on state and local governments to insure their employees. One question is whether the health care law “comandeers” other governments. There is also the question of whether the federal government can tax other governments, which in turn depends on whether the fines collected by the IRS are penalties or taxes.

Oh yeah, and there’s still some question what recourse the IRS has to make you pay.

Daren Bakst has already outlined the broader Constitutional problemswith the individual mandate – problems Attorney General Richard Cooper ignored.

HSAs for State Workers

One way that taxpayers can get more out of the dollars they send to state capitols is to demand that legislators introduce health savings accounts for state workers and retirees. The Texas Public Policy Foundation explains how that works, both with a report (PDF) and a podcast.