Public Service Health Care Plan

March 13, 2006

Important Changes to the Public Service Health Care Plan.

The National Joint Council is pleased to announce that an agreement on the Public Service Health Care Plan (PSHCP) has been reached between representatives of the bargaining agents of the National Joint Council, the Federal Superannuates National Association and the Treasury Board Secretariat. The Public Service Health Care Plan is an important program providing health care benefits and services to over 500,000 members and their dependants.

The agreement is the product of a collaborative process that began in 2004. The terms of the new five-year agreement will improve benefits and ensure that the PSHCP continues on a sound financial foundation for the future. The new terms of the PSHCP will come into effect April 1, 2006 and will mark the first major changes in benefits under the Plan in over a decade.

The agreement introduces:

• increased financial assistance for members who face high prescription drug costs;
• coordination of benefits for couples where both spouses are members of the PSHCP;
• increased flexibility in the payment of contributions for members on leave without pay;
• increased coverage for vision care to $275;
• increased coverage for hearing aids to $1000 every five years;
• increased out-of province coverage for members and other modifications to benefits and services under the Plan.

In addition, the agreement provides for the introduction of a pay-direct drug card that will eliminate the need for plan members to pay for their prescription drugs up-front and seek reimbursement later. Although work to this end will begin as soon as possible, it is not expected that the card will be introduced before 2008. Plan members will be kept informed of the progress of this work.

For pensioners, the agreement provides for a monthly contribution increase of $5.70 for single coverage and $12.14 for family coverage for the next five years which essentially restores the historical funding ratio of 75% from the employer and 25% from pensioners.

Additional information on benefit changes will be provided to members as soon as possible. This information will also be available on the following Web sites:
http://www.njc-cnm.gc.ca/doc.php?lang=e&SubjectID=27 and
http://www.tbs-sct.gc.ca/hr-rh/in-ai/index_e.asp

June 1, 2005

Update on the Status of Public Service Health Care Plan Negotiations

Negotiations for amending the PSHCP continued in Ottawa this week with two days of discussions.

The biggest issue for the Bargaining Agents side ramains the introduction of a Health Card.  The parties are continuing with this discussion.

Other major issues involve a package of proposals tabled earlier in the process which the parties also continue to discuss.

Governance of the plan is an issue raised by the Employer.  Currently the PSHCP is administered by a Trust and the parties are exploring a not-for-profit corporation with similar responsibilities to those exercised by the Trust.  In addition, an ongoing review committee is being considered in order to be more responsive to the need for changes, rather than a full scale negotiation process which happens every five or six years.

The employer has identified their concern with the cost of the plan, both historically and on a “go forward” basis and they are seeking strategies which will provide for some cost certainty.  Amendments to the current funding formula as well as the deductible amount and the 80% co-insurance amount are among the areas the employer is looking at.

Future meeting dates include two days in June and four days in July and should bring the process closer to completion.

May 27, 2005

Drug Card a PSAC priority in the current renegotiation of the PSHCP

Over the last many years, many of our members have expressed frustration that PSAC members do not have a drug card provided to them under the Public Service Health Care Plan (PSHCP).  The PSAC leadership is fully aware of and sincerely regrets the financial burden this unnecessarily places on our members.

It’s true that many health care plans provide drug cards for their members, however few of those health care plans would be of the scope of the PSHCP which covers PSAC members. In fact, the PSHCP has over 520,000 members and provides coverage to over 1.4 million people when spouses and dependents are included. The plan provides coverage to not only the unionized employees of the Federal Public Service but also to management employees, as well as the RCMP, families of the Armed Forces, the House of Commons, and many other federal agencies.  In addition, the PSHCP includes the retirees from all of these types of employment.

The Public Service Health Care Plan Trust (which is comprised of the 17 National  Joint Council  bargaining  agents  of which  the  PSAC is  just  one,  the Federal  Superannuate  National Association, and the employer)  was  formed  in April 2000 to help address the problems of rising health care costs, in part caused by the “downloading” of costs to the provinces, and the consequent reduction in services covered by the provincial plans.  One of the conditions stipulated in the formation of the Trust was an agreement by all the parties that the PSHCP would not be changed for a period of 5 years – that being March 31, 2005. This stipulation provided that the PSCHP benefits could not be lessened despite the panic raised by the soaring costs and the cries for “cost containment”.

Unfortunately, it also prevented any increase in benefits or changes to the Plan during this time. In other words, a drug card could not be negotiated and/or implemented until after the expiry date of the PSHCP.

One of the key mandates of the Trust since its formation was to examine the feasibility of introducing a drug card which would allow members to pay only the 20% co-insurance at the point of sale. The Trust has done this work and has provided recommendations on the feasibility of providing a drug card to be considered in the renegotiation process.

Given the number of issues on the table and their complexity, negotiations have taken longer than expected. Late last fall, the parties agreed that an extension of the originally agreed to time limit was necessary before initiating third party proceedings.

Acting on recommendations from the bargaining teams, the NJC Executive Committee with the participation of FSNA subsequently agreed to delay the date for initiating binding arbitration until June 1, 2005. The parties also agreed to extend the Plan and Trust Agreement beyond their current expiry date of March 31, 2005 to accommodate continued negotiations after this date, as necessary.

We will continue to keep you posted and we assure you that obtaining a drug card for PSAC members continues to be our utmost priority in the renegotation of the PSHCP.

March 10, 2005

The parties have continued to meet and discussions to date have centered on how the plan will be managed and with identifying what plan changes should be considered. Details

November, 2004

Click here for the latest news on PSHCP.

February 4, 2004

Some bargaining demands take a different route to the collective agreement. Click here for the latest news on PSHCP.

October 27, 2003

Disapearing demands. Read more