Spurned teachers, state workers preparing to flex political… | www.myajc.com

State lawmakers stamped out efforts to give 650,000 teachers, state employees and retirees a much greater say in their health coverage in the final hours of the 2014 session.

But that failed effort — and continuing problems for members of the $3 billion State Health Benefits Plan — have motivated thousands of teachers, state retirees and their families to vent their frustration at the ballot box.

The last time teachers moved to defeat a statewide candidate came in 2002, when Gov. Roy Barnes was ousted in part because of what educators considered his attack on their profession.

This time the motivating factors have been years of school spending cuts and, most recently, changes in health coverage that required teachers, state employees and retirees to pay much higher out-of-pocket costs in an effort to save the state money.

Activists say their efforts will be bipartisan, and mostly grass roots. But members of TRAGIC — which started as a Facebook-fueled protest in January — have made it clear they will be active in the upcoming elections, which begin May 20 with primaries for state and federal offices. State retirees say they are plenty motivated as well.

“For a long time, the feeling was teachers shouldn’t speak up about politics,” said John Palmer, a Cobb County middle school band director. “But we have seen an eroding of public support for education. Now people are realizing it’s all connected. It just got to the point where it became personal.”

All of this is relatively new to many of the teachers and family members active in the move to improve the health care plan.

An earlier group of activist teachers led protests from 2000-2002 against Barnes’ school reform efforts. Teachers complained that they felt the governor showed little respect for teachers, and they vowed to oust him even though, at the time, they were getting regular pay raises and seeing state school funding climb. They were one of several groups Barnes angered, and his loss ushered in the first Republican administration in Georgia since Reconstruction.

Today’s group has gone through several rounds of education budget cuts, forcing them to take days off without pay. Many have gone without meaningful raises since the start of the Great Recession, and some earn less than they did in 2008.

State employees have also not gotten raises, and retired state employees have gone without cost-of-living adjustments. Health care premiums through the State Health Benefits Plan have continue to rise.

Still, there was little organized political opposition until the Deal administration and his Department of Community Health (DCH) decided to save $200 million a year by changing the plan last year.

The changes went into effect Jan. 1 and forced many plan members to pay much higher out-of-pocket expenses when they sought treatment. Some plan members said medicine they’d been taking for years suddenly cost them 300 percent more. Plan members said they had to travel to find drugs they could afford or doctors who were part of their new network. One retired school system employee said oxygen tank deliveries she’d long been getting were cut back.