Hundreds of Seafarers, pensioners and their families last month turned out for Seafarers Health and Benefits Plan (SHBP) conferences in Piney Point, Philadelphia, Brooklyn and Norfolk.Additional conferences were scheduled for late April (too late for this edition of the LOG) in Wilmington, San Francisco, Tacoma, Houston, New Orleans and Jacksonville.
During the meetings, Plans spokespersons announced and reviewed adjustments approved by the trustees to the costs of various SHBP coverages. The details, most prominently including deductibles and co-payments, also are spelled out in a letter that was scheduled to be mailed by May 1 to individual SHBP participants.
Unlike for most people with health insurance—not to mention the more than 45 million Americans with no coverage whatsoever—there still is no out-of-pocket cost for Seafarers to simply maintain their coverage through the SHBP. Further, nationwide, eligible Seafarers are in a small minority who don’t have to pay all or part of the premiums for dependent coverage.
A sizeable portion of the conferences consisted of question-and-answer sessions between Seafarers, pensioners and their families and the SHBP panelists. The latter group included Carolyn Gentile, counsel to the Seafarers Plans; Bill Dennis, Plans administrator; Basil Castrovinci and Matt Castrovinci, actuaries for the Plans; and Colleen Baker, representative from First Health Network.
SIU officials also participated in the conferences, including President Michael Sacco, Executive Vice President John Fay, Secretary-Treasurer David Heindel, Vice President Contracts Augie Tellez, Vice President Government Services Kermett Mangram and Vice President Atlantic Coast Joseph Soresi.
During the early moments of the first conference, which took place April 4 at the Paul Hall Center, Gentile stated that the current challenges faced by the Seafarers Health and Benefits Plan are nothing short of a fight for survival. She also reviewed the Plan’s history, which dates to 1950.
Throughout that conference and the others, participants examined the Plan’s current structure and how it operates; discussed the health care crisis from a national perspective; and talked about the importance of being “educated consumers” when it comes to health insurance.
One point that resonated with rank-and-file members is that the root of the problem is “cost shifting”—health care providers trying to compensate for covering the uninsured. The SHBP, for example, recently has flagged hospital bills that attempted to charge the Plan $14,000 for four bottles of water, and another that attempted to charge $400,000 for a $43,000 pacemaker.
Similarly, the SHBP is battling against annual double-digit increases in the cost for health care, including prescription drugs, which are rising by 20 percent each year. The Plan’s costs have increased 65 percent during the current standard contracts.
“We also work with other union health plans, and those plans face the same problems,” stated Basil Castrovinci. “The Seafarers Health and Benefits Plan has fought off the rising costs longer than most.”
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