Critics call for public outcry on Group Benefits privatization

Jindal administration officials didn’t show up at a League of Women Voters luncheon today to discuss possible privatization of the state’s Office of Group Benefits, which gave critics of the idea free reign to blast the governor. “This has been the most clandestine administration I’ve ever witnessed,” says State Sen. Butch Gautreaux, D-Morgan City. He suggested someone favored by the administration was “waiting in the wings” to buy OGB’s book of business and $500 million in reserves. “I want to know where the conservatives who elected Bobby Jindal to office are today,” Gautreaux says, adding that premiums would likely cost taxpayers $100 million a year more if the system is outsourced to a for-profit insurance company. He says Commissioner of Administration Paul Rainwater has never given him a concrete reason why selling OGB might benefit the state, except to say that the state doesn’t belong in the insurance business. Rainwater was invited to the luncheon, as was Jindal’s executive counsel and acting chief of staff, Stephen Waguespack. Former OGB head Tommy Teague says only Louisiana and Utah administer their own benefits plans. Teague says other states have asked how they might set up their own systems, but it takes many years to build up a network of care providers. If OGB’s business is sold and the office is dismantled, there would be no turning back, and the state would be at the mercy of the private insurance market, Teague says. —David Jacobs