The Michigan Education Association (MEA) is now resisting the idea of paying more in employee benefits after going all out in its efforts to force the state to take on that very responsibility just a few years back.
MEA officials are now pushing a plan that would call for higher co-pays and even the loss of certain health care benefits for some retirees as a way of sparing the union from being forced to absorb more of the hit from still-rising costs.
Back in 2011, the state’s largest teachers' union took a totally different position in branding a bill being proposed by lawmakers that sought to establish the same standards as “just another example of our teachers and other public employees being under attack,” MEA Public Affairs Director Doug Pratt told MLive in 2011.
At the time the bill that has since become law was proposed, the average teacher in the state only paid 4 percent, more than six times less than the up to 27 percent paid by some private sector workers.
More recently, MEA officials have seen liabilities skyrocket by as much as three times over, or up to $233 million as recently as 2018, as pension and health care liabilities have continued to swell.
Pratt told MIRS NEWS, as quoted by the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, that the change in policy reflects the "urgent need for action."
He later added, "these updates to retiree health insurance will ensure benefits are available for current and future retirees when they need them most."
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