3,000 HealthPartners workers prepared to strike over their own health care

[Omaha Steve]

Bloomington-based health care provider and insurer HealthPartners employs 26,000 people. Photo by Max Nesterak/Minnesota Reformer.

By Max Nesterak -January 29, 2020

More than 1,800 nurses and other medical care workers at HealthPartners could vote to strike next week if they don’t reach a new contract agreement by Friday at midnight. The workers say they are standing firm against a company effort to cut employee health benefits.

HealthPartners, which has 26,000 employees and more than $7 billion in revenue, has earned a reputation for offering some of the most generous health benefits of any company in Minnesota. Their current plan for employees represented by Service Employees International Union, or SEIU, is unheard of at other large organizations: no premiums, no deductibles and small co-pays for medical visits and prescription drugs.

The plan the Bloomington-based nonprofit is proposing continues no monthly premiums and low co-pays for single people, but it increases costs for married people, including a $100 monthly fee for a spouse.

HealthPartners is also proposing limiting the number of in-network providers on its basic plan to just four locations.

FULL story: https://minnesotareformer.com/2020/01/29/3000-healthpartners-workers-prepared-to-strike-over-their-own-health-care/