• Calling all employers and employees!
  Play your part in defending job opportunities here in Washington.
• Bonneville Power Administration transmission line activities
  Is your home along a proposed transmission line route? Weigh in with the BPA.
• Health care: How proposals in Congress could affect health care for seniors in Southwest Washington
  More than 200,000 Washington seniors may be in danger of losing their preferred health insurance.

As always, if I can ever be of assistance please don’t hesitate to contact me. Have a good week and remember that Wednesday, the 11th, is Veterans' Day. If you haven’t already done so, please thank a veteran for his or her service and sacrifice.

Sincerely,
Jaime Herrera
State Representative
(360) 687-0489

P.S. -- If you know of anyone who would like to sign up for my e-newsletter, please let them know they can do so by visiting this link. Thanks!

Calling all employers and employees!

No one has to be reminded of the state of our economy. I'm working on several proposals for the Legislature to consider when we reconvene in January to combat the rising costs of doing business and its affect on local unemployment, and to help put people back to work. With this e-newsletter, however, I must ask you to weigh in as well.

If you are an employer or employee, you will likely be affected by a proposed workers’ compensation premium rate increase of 7.6 percent for 2010. You can read more about it here.

Sounds okay at first reading, right? Here are some facts, according to state Department of Labor and Industries (L&I) data:

• the proposed rate hike equates to $117 million in new costs for employers;
• workers' compensation claims have declined 55 percent since 1990, yet rates are more than 50 percent higher than ten years ago; and
• administrative costs for the state's system are up 28 percent over the last year.

While employers are doing their part by providing successful worker safety programs and reducing claims, the state refuses to address rampant fraud in the system. This drives up costs for employers and honest employees. Employers are making tough decisions every day to trim costs, and L&I should be doing the same.

While workers’ compensation premiums are falling around the country, our state is choosing to make it harder for small and family businesses to operate by increasing premiums. When their doors close, it means fewer job opportunities in our communities.

Now is not a time to add to the cost of doing business in Washington. Let’s protect jobs and urge rejection of this increase.

The 2010 workers' compensation premium rate will be adopted by Nov. 30. Employers and those affected can submit their views until Nov. 7. Written comments can be e-mailed to Ronald Moore, Employer Services Program Manager, at MOOA235@lni.wa.gov. Comments can also be mailed to Moore at the Department of Labor and Industries, P.O. Box 44140, Olympia, WA 98504-4140. Faxed comments can be sent to (360) 902-4729.

Bonneville Power Administration transmission line activities

The Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) has proposed building a new transmission line from Troutdale, Oregon to Castle Rock. The BPA is studying dozens of proposed routes and is holding open-house meetings around the area. I attended one Tuesday in Camas and came away with some concerns.

I believe it is important we add transmission capacity and keep our power grid stable so that we can all continue to count on our electricity -- even when demand is at its highest. However, I will continue to urge the BPA to approach any potential new transmission lines with concern for the folks who live nearby and to utilize existing rights-of-way. Most of all, the process needs to be fair for the affected property owners -- especially those whose homes are close to potential transmission lines.

Click on the map below to view the BPA's I-5 Corridor Reinforcement Project Study Area.

I have already been contacted by a number of residents in North and East Clark County and East Cowlitz County who have received a letter from the BPA requesting (or in some minds, demanding) access to their land for survey purposes. If you have received such a letter, it is very important that you provide the BPA with your thoughts and concerns. If you have not already attended an open-house meeting, I encourage you to attend the remaining one (see below).

Saturday, Nov. 7
1 to 4 p.m.
Hazel Dell Grange
7509 NE Hazel Dell Avenue
Vancouver, WA 98665

Public comments are being accepted until Nov. 23. You can comment at the BPA’s Web site, mail them a letter, call, or fax using toll-free lines. Please see below.

http://www.bpa.gov/corporate/i-5-eis/ecomment.cfm
I-5 Corridor Reinforcement Project, P.O. Box 9250, Portland, OR 97207
Phone: 1-800-230-6593
FAX: 1-800-315-4503

Health care: How proposals in Congress could affect health care for seniors in Southwest Washington

It seems like we cannot pick up a newspaper or watch the news without hearing about health care proposals in Congress. As a state representative on the Health Care and Wellness Committee, I am watching closely to how these proposals would affect us here in Southwest Washington. What I am seeing out of the other Washington is troublesome, especially the impacts it could have on many seniors.

Let me set the stage. It appears the final bill would create a massive expansion of government health insurance that is paid for in large part by "savings" from Medicare -– the government health insurance program for seniors. But please make no mistake: in this instance, savings means cuts. And more troubling is the fact Medicare is already paying out more in benefits than it will be able to sustain -– and most of the baby boomers have not even retired yet.

So how might all this impact you or your family? The main target of proposed cuts is Medicare Advantage (MA) plans – which 209,878 Washingtonians, or 23.4 percent of Medicare recipients, have chosen as their Medicare plan.

If you are not familiar with MA plans, they provide options for seniors on Medicare. Instead of traditional fee-for-service Medicare, seniors may select an MA plan that is administered by a private health insurer to receive their Medicare coverage. This includes Parts A, B, Medigap, and many include prescription drug coverage.

The point is that seniors are free to choose what best meets their needs. By eliminating MA plans, the federal government would be eliminating choice for many seniors.

Many seniors prefer MA plans because they provide broader and richer benefits, coordinated care, and access to physicians and specialists. Perhaps as you may have experienced, many physicians and specialists will not see traditional Medicare patients due to the low reimbursement rates. This is not the norm with MA plans. They often provide better payments to physicians.

If you are a senior in Southwest Washington and have an MA plan, you’ve got a fighting chance at finding a physician willing to take on a new Medicare patient.

The second major concern with cutting Medicare to pay for a massive expansion of government health insurance is that any savings in Medicare should be used to keep the system solvent for the coming retirement surge of baby boomers and future generations. Medicare is funded through a payroll tax on employers and employees; however, the Medicare Trust Fund has an unfunded liability of $89 trillion. An unfunded liability is the difference between the benefits that have been promised to current and near retirees, and what will be collected in dedicated taxes and Medicare premiums.

To put this in perspective, we often hear about the crisis with Social Security. However, it carries a significantly smaller unfunded liability of $17.5 trillion.

When added all up, 14 percent of federal income tax revenues are diverted to the Medicare and Social Security trust funds to keep the systems afloat. But if we continue down the same path, it is estimated 27 percent of federal income tax revenues would be needed by 2020 to fully fund Medicare and Social Security.

I hope this gives you a perspective on the enormity of the problems facing our country and taxpayers.

There is no question Medicare needs to be transformed in order to be available for future generations. But eliminating choices and access to doctors for seniors, and using any resulting savings (read: cuts) to pay for a massive expansion of government health insurance, are simply not the kind of health care reforms that will be good for the country or citizens of Washington state.