Somewhere
I’ve read that we
have a government
‘Of the people, by
the people and FOR
the people’. However
I am beginning to
believe that some of
those IN the
government believe
it should be. ‘Of
the people, by the
people and for US.’
My issue this week
is a practice just
discovered here in
the great state of
Texas. It seems the
Texas legislature
has had a practice
of hiring what are
known as ‘ghost
employees’ at rates
of $100 to $300 per
month and labeling
them as ‘full time’
employees which
qualifies these
‘ghost employees’
for health insurance
benefits, life
insurance benefits
as well as
retirement benefits.
All at taxpayer
expense. Your money
and my money. None
of the so called
workers were
required to fill out
any sort of time
sheet or punch a
time clock as many
of us ordinary
people must do each
and every day. I
suppose I’m being
too harsh on these
hard working
governmental types,
after all $300 a
month divided by 120
working hours only
comes out to $2.50
an hour. hardly even
minimum wage. What
dedication, what
loyalty. What a
rip-off.
What a deal. The
legislative body has
set itself up to add
personnel to their
payrolls at a
minimum cost per
month for persons
who perform little
or no actual on site
work but get great
benefits they
otherwise could not
afford. You can bet
the state insurance
program is one of
the best. One of the
members of the
legislature was
interviewed and
responded by
saying.. "Everyone
is doing it; it
isn’t like it’s a
big secret." Well,
that warms my heart,
doesn’t it yours?
After the news came
out, the
legislatures came
back and, get this,
re-classified’ these
formerly ‘full time’
workers to be now
known as ‘on-call’
employees. This was
explained further to
the press by saying
that
all of the
misclassified
employees were
labeled as ‘full
time’ as a result of
some clerical error.
The ‘on-call’
classification does
not require any time
sheets or clocking
punching either. It
makes me wonder just
how much actual work
(if any) these so
called ‘on call’
people do in any
given month. The pay
isn’t great but the
benefits are
wonderful.
Wait, that’s not
all!!!! You get
more!!!!
The speaker of the
house initiated a
policy that ANY
member of the
legislature who had
grown unmarried
children of any age
could still be on
the health and
medical policy of
the legislature. It
seems the speaker
had a 32 year old
unmarried daughter
who needed to be
covered and so she
was. Nice deal for
them, not for you
and me.
My problem with this
is simple, these
kinds of deals are
not, I repeat NOT
available to the
average citizen. For
example, when one of
my sons got ready to
go into the Navy,
they found he had a
hernia which needed
to be fixed before
he could be
accepted. We took
him to a doctor, had
him operated on and
off he went to basic
training. He had
been out of college
for about 2 months
and the insurance
company was taking
my premiums for his
coverage. About a
month after the
operation I got a
bill for over
$12,000 for the
surgery. I spoke to
the insurance
company and found
out that my son was
not covered since he
had ceased being a
full time student.
Obviously the
speaker of the Texas
house doesn’t have
that problem since
his unmarried
daughter would be
eligible for
coverage no matter
what her age. As
long as she remained
unmarried she could
be covered until she
was ninety…or
whatever.
Now the other issue
here is that in
order for this to
happen and these
conditions to be
acceptable the
insurance company
has to approve of
the practice. If you
and I own a company
and we want to
provide health
insurance for our
employees, we can
only cover full time
(40 hours per week
or more) type
employees. I’ve had
grown men come to me
and practically beg
me to put their
wives or children on
our program since
they could not
afford an individual
health insurance
policy. They would
even offer to pay
the
premiums. I’ve had
relatives want to do
the same thing. My
heart went out to
them, but if our
carrier caught us
putting some ‘ghost’
employee on our plan
then they could and
would drop our
coverage in a
heartbeat. Not so in
the case of the
Texas legislature,
they can insure any
unmarried child or
any so called ‘part
time or on call’
employee that they
wish, all at
taxpayers expense.
Think there is any
kind of a deal
between the
insurance companies
and the legislature?
Perish the thought.
What a crock…but
then it just goes
back to a government
of the people, by
the people and for
THEM.. doesn’t it?
This kind of stuff
turns my stomach and
is so wrong.
