The skyrocketing cost of healthcare has had a strong impact on working families and has created some tough bargaining battles in CSEA chapters. That's why we have been working as your advocate at the local, state and federal levels to ensure that you receive the best healthcare possible without sacrificing your pay or other benefits. As your union, we are here to help you get the healthcare benefits you need and deserve.

CSEA is leading the effort to bring all stakeholders together to campaign for reform. If you’re interested in helping with this effort, contact your chapter leaders or CSEA field office.

Our healthcare system is in crisis, but it can be fixed if we start now.

The Problem
Like all Californians, school employees are being hurt by the rising cost of healthcare. Every worker should be able to go to the doctor when they or their children are sick. Yet many classified school employees do not qualify for health insurance through their employers. Those who do have healthcare are paying more and more of their incomes each year for insurance premiums, deductibles and co-payments. Increasingly, families are facing harsh trade-offs between paying for insurance and putting food on the table.

The Solution
CSEA is working on a three-step solution to the healthcare crisis. The first step is to utilize our best negotiations resources to ensure that members are getting the best possible healthcare available through their employer or other means. The second step is to bring all of the stakeholders to the table as we press for real health care reform. The final goal is to achieve affordable, quality healthcare that’s accessible to all Californians.

Through CSEA’s Healthcare Task Force, staff experts at every field office share the best negotiations options to cope with rising healthcare costs in the short-term. We also help qualifying members learn more about government-sponsored coverage such as: Healthy Families, MMRIP and AIM programs. Additionally, CSEA’s Member Benefits program offers voluntary and supplemental insurance to individual members at a group rate.

CSEA is working with several coalitions and grass roots organizations as we bring the major stakeholders to the table.  The goal is to provide comprehensive medical benefits for all California residents. That means everyone would enjoy benefits including hospital, medical, surgical, emergency care, prescription drugs, mental health, dental, vision, health education, skilled nursing after hospitalization and even hearing aids—all while maintaining the freedom to choose your own primary care doctor. Analysts project that a single-payer system would reduce the cost of duplication and waste, freeing up billions of new dollars for patient care and prescription drugs.

It’s not impossible. What is impossible, is to continue paying double-digit increases for a broken healthcare system.

RELATED RESOURCES