In an unusual case revealed this week, a current state employee visited a hospital emergency room 150 times in a single year - an average of three times per week.
State union officials refused Tuesday to release the employee's name because of federal privacy rules, but they mentioned the case to illustrate a change in health benefits under a comprehensive deal with Gov. Dannel P. Malloy that is projected to save $1.6 billion over the next two fiscal years.
State employees will be required in the future to make a co-payment of $35 for each visit to the emergency room, but that fee will be waived if the person is admitted to the hospital or had no reasonable alternative to obtaining care from the emergency room. Currently, state employees have no co-payments for emergency room visits.
That change is one of many on healthcare, pensions and wages that are part of a package that was negotiated over the past two months by Malloy and the union leadership. The deal, which must be ratified by the individual unions and the Democratic-controlled legislature, is being hailed by Democrats and criticized by Republicans.
The biggest cost savings is a two-year wage freeze that includes all forms of payment and would save a projected $450 million over two years.
But Republicans ripped the deal Tuesday, saying it is a "smoke and mirrors'' agreement with questionable cost-saving assumptions and a giveaway to the unions. House Republican leader Larry Cafero said that Malloy - and thus the state - got taken "to the cleaners'' in the deal.
"Unfortunately, the more we see the details, the less there is to like,'' said Senate Republican leader John McKinney of Fairfield. "A four-year, no-layoff pledge, which no one in the private sector has, leaves us four years from now, right where we started. Unemployment in the private sector is 9.1 percent. Unemployment in government is zero percent. Extending the SEBAC agreement to the year 2022 is a terrible mistake. It binds us for another 11 years. And now we find out that most of the savings that the governor touts as historic are either not concessions or not achievable.''
He added, "These numbers make very little sense. I understand the governor has done a tremendous job of spin. I understand maybe he announced his presidential ambitions last night at the JJB, defending labor across the country. ... We've been sold a bill of goods on this concession package.''
Malloy's senior adviser and chief spokesman, Roy Occhiogrosso, responded that McKinney and other Republicans are "very frustrated'' by Malloy's stances on the budget and the unions.
"This governor has done more to stabilize the state's finances in four months on the job than the past two governors did in 15 years on the job,'' Occhiogrosso said. "They should be applauding what he is doing, but their party label prevents them from doing it. They're Republicans. .. They're frustrated that there's a Democratic governor who is succeeding where two Republicans failed.''
He added, "They're looking behind every tree for some conspiracy figure.''
The comprehensive deal calls for changes in the expensive healthcare benefits that state employees currently receive - by encouraging employees to become healthier and thus save the state money in the long run. That would be accomplished through annual physical exams, two free dental cleanings per year, and a colonoscopy for those of the appropriate age. Those who refuse to sign a commitment form to improve their health would be subject to additional premiums of $100 per month, plus a $350 per year deductible.
"We hope no employees will make this decision, but every employee will have that choice,'' the union leaders said in a summary of the deal.
The deal calls for no change in the co-pay of prescription drugs for maintenance reasons, such as high blood pressure or cholesterol. Those co-pays will remain at $5 for generic, $10 for preferred brand-name drugs, and $25 for brand-name drugs that are not on a special list of approved drugs.