news-record.com

RALEIGH — Rep. Hugh Holliman’s role in rewriting the state’s health plan makes him “part of the problem,” according to an employee group running radio ads criticizing the Lexington Democrat.

The two-year, $675-million bailout raises deductibles and co-pays as well as increases the cost for dependent coverage. It also cuts benefits for those who are overweight or smoke. Although it costs taxpayers, it is not as expensive as other potential fixes to the plan.

The ad attacking Holliman is sponsored by the State Employees Association of North Carolina, a 55,000-member, union-affiliated group that frequently gets involved in political campaigns and lobbies the legislature.

“Hugh Holliman has his priorities wrong,” says the  ad airing on WZTK-FM and WSJS-AM in the High Point and Greensboro markets. “He’s part of the problem when he needs to be part of the solution. Maybe it’s time for new leadership in the North Carolina legislature.”

Holliman, the House majority leader, helped lead the restructuring of the plan, which covers 667,000 government employees and retirees. It was signed by Gov. Bev Perdue last week.

He said legislators did the best they could with the health plan. For example, he said, premiums for dependent coverage would have risen more than 30 percent under an early version of the bailout, but that number was reduced to 6.6 percent.

“I think it’s fair to say I really don’t appreciate (the ad) but they’re certainly welcome to do what they think they need to do,” Holliman said. “I think SEANC needs to discover they’re in the real world ... and we don’t have money to just throw around.”

Problems with the state health plan came to light just as North Carolina began falling into a recession that has affected private employers and crimped tax collections.

Lawmakers are currently working on how to bridge a budget shortfall that will be $3 billion or more.

“Everybody is going to feel the pain before the budget is over,” Holliman said.

Employees are not the only ones unhappy with the plan. Republican legislators said it failed to take cost-saving steps and make long-term fixes.

Under the bailout law, long-term fixes — such as how to attract and keep younger members — would be tackled by a blue ribbon commission.

Kevin LeCount, SEANC’s political director, said Holliman and his colleagues in the House “abdicated responsibility” to put limits on a plan first formulated by the Senate.
“The House had a legitimate oversight responsibility but in fact made the bill worse,” he said.

Holliman is one of two legislators primarily responsible for overseeing the health plan. The other is Sen. Tony Rand, a Fayetteville Democrat and the majority leader in the Senate. SEANC is not targeting his districts with ads at the moment.

“Everything we say in the ad about Rep. Holliman, we would be happy to make the same assertions about Rand,” LeCount said. “It’s not because we’re not going to talk about Rand.”

Worth noting: Rand’s district is heavily Democratic and he faced no challenger in 2008. Meanwhile, Holliman won his 2008 general election by about 5 percentage points in a district seen as a swing area where it’s possible for a Republican to unseat him.

Asked if he was concerned about the potential political fallout from a spat with SEANC, Holliman acknowledged it could be a problem for him in the 2010 election.

“But I don’t think those kind of considerations keep us from doing the things we feel like are right,” Holliman said. 
 

Contact Mark Binker at (919) 832-5549 or mark.binker@news-record.com