Cherokee Tribune – Group receives TRAGIC response from gov

After hearing from hundreds of members of a group started by a Canton woman to fight changes to the state’s health insurance plan, Gov. Nathan Deal said Monday he would back improvement to the plan that impacts more than 650,000 state employees.

Ashley Cline, wife of a Cherokee teacher, created the Facebook group TRAGIC, or Teachers Rally Against Georgia Insurance Changes in January, and the group now has more than 11,500 members.

Cline said TRAGIC does not see Deal’s announcement as a victory, because not everyone is positively impacted by the change.

“They basically tacked on a co-pay option to the HRA plan we had, so instead of paying, let’s say $300, they restored the co-pay so it’d be $45,” Cline said. “That sounds great, and for everyone that had an HMO last year the feedback is very positive.”

Cline said that a lot of state employees and teachers don’t want an HMO, because they hit their deductibles early in the year and they’d rather pay that co-insurance because it’s cheaper than the co-pay.

“So we had a lot of people that are going to be negatively affected by this. A lot of people will save money, but again, we’re all being stuck with the same thing,” she said.

via Cherokee Tribune – Group receives TRAGIC response from gov.