THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, June 14, 1996 TAG: 9606140023
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A18 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Letter
LENGTH: 31 lines
Health insurance is a part of the compensation package which all full-time state employees work for, just as they work for their salaries. Many state employees pay additionally out of pocket for extra coverage and always pay out of pocket for family coverage.
In the recent report by staff writer Warren Fiske, according to Michael Thomas, state secretary of administration (and former executive director of the anti-abortion Virginia Society for Human Life) 452 state workers received health benefits for abortions during a 12-month period, costing taxpayers $611,000. Yet in the same paragraph, it stated that these abortions were covered under the insurance plan.
Something doesn't add up. If these abortions were covered under the insurance plan, how did they at the same time cost taxpayers $611,000? Isn't that the purpose of health insurance?
Since this is a benefit that employees earn, it is unbelievable that the Allen administration can restrict insurance coverage of this legal, medical procedure.
By the same line of reasoning, state employees' salaries are taxpayer funded. I surely hope that this administration doesn't take a dislike to any other legal purchases in the retail market and forbid state employees to use ``taxpayer-funded'' money on them.
C. T. ROBERTS
Chesapeake, June 5, 1996 by CNB