A friend sent this inquiry a week or so ago: You must be aware that the teachers have lost their medical coverage through the VEBA Trust and benefits will convert automatically to reduced coverage through the EUTF (Employer-Union Health Benefits Trust Fund) system. Since I am a fixed income retiree supporting a family of four [...]
The Hawaii Supreme Court has ruled in a case involving the rights of retirees to health insurance coverage currently administered by the Hawaii Employer-Union Health Benefits Trust Fund, but the meaning of the decision remains unclear. The decision was on the agenda of the Hawaii Employer-Union Health Benefits Trust Fund at its meeting yesterday, but [...]
Tags: Hawaii Employer-Union Health Benefits Trust Fund·Hawaii Supreme Court
Attorney General Mark Bennett told the Hawaii Supreme Court last month that health benefits provided retired state and county workers are not among the retirement benefits the State Constitution protects from being “diminished or impaired”. Bennett said health benefits are not administered by the Employee Retirement System and therefore fall outside of the benefits provided [...]
Tags: EUTF·Hawaii Employer-Union Health Benefits Trust Fund·Mark Bennett·Paul Alston
The major public worker unions are are placing a special emphasis on bills to be introduced in the 2010 legislative session aimed at “reforming or changing” the Employer-Union Health Benefits Trust Fund, according to a UH Professional Assembly newsletter. UHPA reports: The language will allow for new structures for providing benefit packages and improve the [...]
At last week’s meeting of the Hawaii Employer-Union Health Benefits Trust Fund, it was publicly announced that approximately 21,000 members submitted forms to move to the PPO health plan administered by HMSA instead of staying with the “default” HMA plan. If that’s still true when all the smoke clears, it will mean HMSA held on [...]
Tags: EUTF·Hawaii Employer-Union Health Benefits Trust Fund·HMA·HMSA
With just two weeks left for state and county workers and retirees to verify that their dependents, if any, are eligible to continue to receive health insurance provided by the State Employer-Union Health Benefits Trust Fund, there are more signs that the verification process is flawed. Elderly retirees, in particular, may face serious issues, especially [...]
Tags: EUTF·Hawaii Employer-Union Health Benefits Trust Fund·Health care
Trustees of the Hawaii Employer-Union Health Benefits Trust Fund are expected to vote today in a closed executive session on whether to penalized the state’s largest health insurer for what EUTF has called “unauthorized and inaccurate information” distributed in advertisements and mailings during November’s “open enrollment” period. The action stems from a widely circulated email [...]
Tags: EUTF·Hawaii Employer-Union Health Benefits Trust Fund·HMSA
At the same time that Summerlin Life and Health Insurance Company, a small Nevada-based insurer, announced its 2004 entry into Hawaii’s tight insurance market, the company was struggling to provide acceptable levels of service in its home state, where it was contracted to offer an HMO plan for Medicaid recipients as well as selling coverage [...]
