{"id":9282,"date":"2014-09-26T10:30:51","date_gmt":"2014-09-26T10:30:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/viconsortium.com\/?p=9282"},"modified":"2014-09-26T11:23:16","modified_gmt":"2014-09-26T11:23:16","slug":"de-jongh-health-coverage-7000-government-workers-lapse-health-board-blame","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/?p=9282","title":{"rendered":"De Jongh: Health Coverage for 7,000 Government Workers Could Lapse, Health Board To Blame"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Due to a failure of the Health Insurance Board to successfully negotiate a new contract, more than 7,000 government employees could be left without health insurance come Sept. 30.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Governor John P. de Jongh, Jr. expressed his displeasure Thursday of the inability of the Government Employees Services Commission\/Health Insurance Board to come up with a new contract to provide health coverage for government employees.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cLast night\u2019s hearing by the Senate Committee of the Whole clarified for the public and especially for government workers that the health insurance board has not completed a contract for my review or execution,\u201d de Jongh said, adding, the board is nearing\u00a0a Sept. 30<span style=\"font-size: xx-small;\">\u00a0<\/span>deadline to produce a\u00a0new contract or risk a lapse in\u00a0health insurance coverage for government workers.<\/p>\n<p>Since a Government House meeting on June 23, de Jongh pointed out, the board knew that $150.9 million was the most the\u00a0government could afford to pay for a new one-year contract.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe have the same objective, which is ensure that our employees and their families have access to insurance coverage,&#8221; de Jongh said. &#8220;Where we disagree is that the board ignores the realities of our financial situation, and therefore, wants to go around me and get a contract approved based on their belief that there is an \u2018open checkbook\u2019.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The Governor went on to explain that Board members &#8220;chose not to include the Executive Branch in the review and approval process&#8221; and now that the Sept. 30 deadline is approaching they are now &#8220;seeking guidance from the Legislature.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe have had since June twenty-third\u00a0to resolve this situation, but they decided not to engage us in the process and have failed to come up with a contingency for what happens on October first,\u201d de Jongh said.<\/p>\n<p>De Jongh noted that despite the board being notified in June that the\u00a0territory\u2019s finances could only support a maximum\u00a0health insurance contract of\u00a0$150.9 million, the board responded on Aug. 1\u00a0with a cost of $159.7 million. The board was again reminded\u00a0on Aug. 14 that the budget could only sustain a contract of no more than\u00a0$150.9 million.<\/p>\n<p>As of the end of business on Sept. 25, de Jongh said he still had not received a contract to review, approve and submit to the 30<sup>th<\/sup> Legislature. He\u00a0urged the board to request a\u00a0contract submission extension with CIGNA beyond the Sept. 30 deadline and to open talks for a\u00a0contract that would fall in line with what the government can afford.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe cannot ignore the fact that we face a $74 million dollar shortfall in FY 2015,&#8221; de Jongh said. &#8220;This contract cannot be negotiated in a vacuum.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Due to a failure of the Health Insurance Board to successfully negotiate a new contract, more than 7,000 government employees could be left without health insurance come Sept. 30.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":9287,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[191,147],"tags":[619],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v20.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>De Jongh: Health Coverage for 7,000 Government Workers Could Lapse, Health Board To Blame - V.I. Consortium<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Due to a failure of the Health Insurance Board to successfully negotiate a new contract, more than 7,000 government employees could be left without...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/?p=9282\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Cynthia Graham\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/?p=9282\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/?p=9282\",\"name\":\"De Jongh: Health Coverage for 7,000 Government Workers Could Lapse, Health Board To Blame - V.I. Consortium\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2014-09-26T10:30:51+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2014-09-26T11:23:16+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/#\/schema\/person\/0248d16fde000a597e43884909b55cd7\"},\"description\":\"Due to a failure of the Health Insurance Board to successfully negotiate a new contract, more than 7,000 government employees could be left without...\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/?p=9282#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/?p=9282\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/?p=9282#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"De Jongh: Health Coverage for 7,000 Government Workers Could Lapse, Health Board To Blame\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/\",\"name\":\"V.I. Consortium\",\"description\":\"Uniting the Caribbean\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/#\/schema\/person\/0248d16fde000a597e43884909b55cd7\",\"name\":\"Cynthia Graham\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/0.gravatar.com\/avatar\/0958153e7bbe86c33b7ec25cf42d909a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"http:\/\/0.gravatar.com\/avatar\/0958153e7bbe86c33b7ec25cf42d909a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Cynthia Graham\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/viconsortium.com\/\"],\"url\":\"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/?author=9\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"De Jongh: Health Coverage for 7,000 Government Workers Could Lapse, Health Board To Blame - V.I. Consortium","description":"Due to a failure of the Health Insurance Board to successfully negotiate a new contract, more than 7,000 government employees could be left without...","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/?p=9282","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Cynthia Graham","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/?p=9282","url":"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/?p=9282","name":"De Jongh: Health Coverage for 7,000 Government Workers Could Lapse, Health Board To Blame - V.I. Consortium","isPartOf":{"@id":"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/#website"},"datePublished":"2014-09-26T10:30:51+00:00","dateModified":"2014-09-26T11:23:16+00:00","author":{"@id":"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/#\/schema\/person\/0248d16fde000a597e43884909b55cd7"},"description":"Due to a failure of the Health Insurance Board to successfully negotiate a new contract, more than 7,000 government employees could be left without...","breadcrumb":{"@id":"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/?p=9282#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/?p=9282"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/?p=9282#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"De Jongh: Health Coverage for 7,000 Government Workers Could Lapse, Health Board To Blame"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/#website","url":"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/","name":"V.I. Consortium","description":"Uniting the Caribbean","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/#\/schema\/person\/0248d16fde000a597e43884909b55cd7","name":"Cynthia Graham","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en","@id":"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"http:\/\/0.gravatar.com\/avatar\/0958153e7bbe86c33b7ec25cf42d909a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"http:\/\/0.gravatar.com\/avatar\/0958153e7bbe86c33b7ec25cf42d909a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Cynthia Graham"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/viconsortium.com\/"],"url":"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/?author=9"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9282"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9282"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9282\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/9287"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9282"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9282"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wp.viconsortium.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9282"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}