2
MONDAY, FEBRUARY 21, 2005
POLICE LOG
FROM STAFF REPORTS
■ An N.C. State University
engineering master’s student was
arrested about 11:50 p.m. Saturday
and charged with assault on a gov
ernment official, damage to prop
erty and being drunk and disrup
tive all misdemeanors Chapel
Hill police reports state.
According to reports, Jonathan
Brodnax Bell, 23, 0f3004 Brennan
Drive in Raleigh, was being
detained by a Players security
guard in Amber Alley beneath the
nightclub at 179 E. Franklin St.
Bell was extremely intoxicated
and broke The Rathskeller’s front
glass display case, reports state.
When officers tried to detain
him, he kicked one of them in the
upper leg, reports state.
He was released and is sched
ule to appear April 11 in Orange
County District Criminal Court in
Hillsborough.
■ A UNC Hospitals nurse’s aide
was arrested at 9 p.m. Saturday and
charged with 20 counts of felony
forgery of a prescription and one
count of felony credit card fraud,
Chapel Hill police reports state.
According to reports, LaShawn
Marshall, 34, of 103 Gunston
Court, was arrested at her home
on warrants issued for 20 forged
prescriptions for a total of 1,870
tablets over a two-month period.
She also was charged with unau
thorized use of a credit card in
excess of SSOO, reports state.
She was released on a written
promise to appear at the first oppor
tunity in Orange County District
Criminal Court in Hillsborough.
■ A Chapel Hill man was arrest
ed at 8 p.m. Saturday on Conner
Drive and charged with two counts
of felonious indecent liberties,
Chapel Hill police reports state.
According to reports, Brian
Tucker, 35, of the streets of Chapel
Hill, was a passenger of a red 1989
Honda Accord stopped for a seat
belt violation.
Officers arrested him on warrants
taken out Jan. 13, reports state.
He was taken to Orange County
Jail to be held on a $2,000 secured
bond. He is set to appear Tuesday
in Orange County District Criminal
Court in Hillsborough.
■ A UNC student was arrested
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at 3 a.m. Saturday at his residence
at 110 Mistywood Circle U and
charged with assault on a female,
Chapel Hill police reports state.
According to reports, Calvin
Sylvester Churchill, 27, a junior eco
nomics major, struck his girlfriend
in the face, causing minor injuries.
Drugs or alcohol were involved
in the incident, reports state.
Churchill was taken to Orange
County Jail and was not given bail.
He will appear today in Orange
County District Criminal Court in
Hillsborough.
■ A UNC student was arrested
at 1:36 a.m. Saturday and charged
with driving while intoxicated,
Chapel Hill police reports state.
According to reports, David
Michael Cowan, 21, of 1742
Southpointe Drive in Morganton,
was involved in a collision on Church
Street in a gray 1998 Honda.
He refused to submit a breath
sample, reports state.
He was released on a written
promise to appear March 29 in
Orange County District Criminal
Court in Chapel Hill.
■ A UNC graduate student was
arrested at 4:17 a.m. Saturday and
charged with driving while intoxi
cated at 2321 N.C. 54 East, Chapel
Hill police reports state.
According to reports, Matthew
Myers Griffith, 24, of 605 Airport
Road Apt. 4, was arrested because
he was in control of a suspicious blue
2004 Honda Civic parked at a Citgo
station on Barbee Chapel Road.
His blood alcohol content was
measured at 0.11 percent, reports
state.
He was released on a written
promise to appear March 29 in
Administrative Traffic Court in
Chapel Hill.
■ An red 1992 Isuzu Rodeo
was reported stolen at 6:14 p.m.
Saturday from 326 Brooks St.,
Chapel Hill police reports state.
According to reports, the auto,
valued at $1,500, was last known to
be secure at 7 p.m. Tuesday.
■ A green 1994 Toyota Tercel was
reported stolen at 12:13 a.m. Sunday
from a parking lot at University
Mall, at 201S. Estes Drive, Chapel
Hill police reports state. The car was
valued at SI,OOO, reports state.
Health plan would spark change
Would help alter state’s ailing system
BY LUCY BRYAN
CONTRIBUTING WRITER
When Cathy Knight thinks of
the state health plan, she thinks of
the $427 that gets taken out of her
paycheck every month.
That adds up to about $5,130 a
year l5 percent of her salary.
She thinks of the thick manual
she received when she signed up
for the only health insurance plan
she’s ever had.
She tried reading it once but
quickly got lost in the terms and
numbers.
She thinks of her 17-year-old
daughter and her husband, a self
employed brick mason, and says, “I
just pay it. It’s better to have some
thing than nothing.”
Knight, a housekeeping admin
istrator for South Campus resi
dence halls at UNC-Chapel Hill,
is one of the 560,000 members
of the State Health Plan, the only
health insurance option that is
offered to North Carolina teach
ers and state employees and their
families.
About 36,000 of those people
work within the UNC system.
They are educators, mainte
nance staff, office personnel and
hospital workers —and some of
them are paying up to one-third
of their earnings to keep their
families covered.
It doesn’t cost anything for
a state employee to be insured
under the plan, but the price tag
is $l7B a month for each child
and soars to $427 a month for
family coverage.
Those premiums have increased
by 17 percent between 2002 and
2003, leaving many employees
wondering when the next increase
will come and whether or not they
will continue being able to afford
family coverage.
It is a system with high prices
and no options, a system that
leaves Knight and many of her fel
low employees feeling trapped.
But there are people on all lev
els of the state health plan’s com
plex system who know there is a
problem and who are working for
change.
News
Sparking change
Last fall, the UNC-system
Office of the President commis
sioned a health care satisfaction
survey, which was administered
to employees by Hewitt Associates
LLC.
Laurie Charest, associate vice
chancellor for human resources
at UNC-Chapel Hill, said the sur
vey was designed to provide hard
evidence for employees’ dissatis
faction with health care benefits
so the Office of the President
could begin investigating an
alternative health plan or “pilot
project.”
Of the 12,380 employees who
responded, 65 percent were dis
satisfied with employee contribu
tion costs, and 74 percent were
dissatisfied with out-of-pocket
costs.
“For us to get permission to
move ahead with the pilot proj
ect, we will have to go first to the
Board of Governors and then
to the legislature for approval,”
Charest said.
“So it seemed important for us
to have some data to back up what
ever our request (will) be.”
Charest is part of a task force
commissioned by the Office of the
President to research alternative
health insurance plans for the pilot
project.
She said the task force hopes to
design a plan that will subsidize
the cost of dependent care, reduce
out-of-pocket costs and provide a
variety of coverage options.
But she also said the pilot proj
ect would have to work within
the same limited budget that the
General Assembly allots to the
State Health Plan every year.
“The idea is that we would use
the same amount of money but
restructure the program in a way
that (would make) people happier
with the benefits,” Charest said.
During the Board of Governors’
Budget and Finance Committee
meeting in February, a prelimi
nary draft outlining 12 possible
objectives for the plan came to
light.
Anew plan based on these
objectives could emerge by 2006
—but its feasibility hinges on
the approval of the N.C. General
Assembly.
And unless the UNC system’s
plan will benefit the state health
plan as a whole, the legislature is
unlikely to pass it, said N.C. Sen.
Tony Rand, chairman of the BOG’s
Oversight Committee on the N.C.
Teachers and State Employees
Health Plan.
“They (shouldn’t) just look at,
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‘How can we make a better deal
for us?’” said Rand, a Cumberland
County Democrat and the Senate
majority leader.
“Because in the long term, that
will not fly.”
Chronic costs
Dr. Jack Walker, executive
administrator of the state health
plan, said the solution lies not in
who delivers health care, but in
how it is delivered.
Walker said the management
end of a health care plan, which
includes issuing user cards and
processing claims, accounts for
about 2.5 percent of the cost of the
plan so finding a more efficient
administrator is likely to have a
minimal impact.
The other 97-5 percent of health
care costs comes from members’
doctor visits, surgeries and pre
scription drugs. And these costs
are increasing exponentially as the
number of chronically ill people
rises.
Walker said that in 2003, more
than 164,000 members of the
state health plan were treated for
chronic diseases such as asthma,
diabetes, heart disease, arthritis
and cancer.
On average, each of these
members costs the plan $7,400
a year, whereas a member who
does not have a chronic disease
costs the plan an average of SBOO
a year.
This system punishes healthy
members, who essentially pay the
bills of unhealthy members.
Though a healthy family of
four costs the system an average
of $3,200 a year, that family pays
almost $2,000 more in money
that goes to pay for care for the
chronically ill.
Since 2000, the percentage of
healthy members in the plan has
dropped from 64 percent to 58
percent.
Plan administrators predict that
another 7 percent of members will
be reclassified as unhealthy during
the next five years, a switch that
Walker estimates will cost $476
million.
“I think it’s a crisis coming to a
head very shortly,” Walker said.
A radical solution is needed,
Walker said, and it must be one
that can shift the responsibility
of health care from providers to
members.
Focus on health
Walker said that during the
next four years, he hopes the state
health plan will focus on helping
people remain healthy.
A program called North
Carolina Health Smart, which is
GV My Uteri
“Does a collective
political will eocist
to pass (anew
health plan)? I
don’t know.”
TONY RAND, senate majority leader
part of the plan’s budget proposal
to the General Assembly this ses
sion, might help.
The program will include fit
ness and dietary programs, smok
ing cessation programs, medical
case management and screen
ings to identify and track health
risks.
Rand said he hopes the General
Assembly will take the concept of a
wellness benefit even further.
“We are considering making the
employee pay part of the premium,
but giving them back that money
if they will lead a healthy lifestyle,”
Rand said.
Rand said this plan would allow
employees to earn back part of a
mandatory monthly premium by
concentrating on improving their
own health.
Employees could participate in
fitness programs, decrease their
cholesterol levels or give up ciga
rettes to reduce the cost of their
health care.
This type of plan would reward
healthy members through an incen
tive system rather than exploit
them, Rand said.
“We have to give people an
incentive to take better care of
themselves, which is a benefit to
the employee —but it’s also a ben
efit to the plan.”
A political push
Even with backing from officials
within the UNC-system and with
support from current users of the
health plan, such a measure would
have to survive the political pro
cess, Rand cautioned.
To pass, it would need the sup
port of 26 members of the Senate,
61 members of the House and
Gov. Mike Easley.
“Does a collective political will
exist to pass that?” Rand asked.
“I don’t know. But if you don’t
pass that, the cost (of health care)
continues to escalate dramati
cally.”
If the measure succeeds, Knight
and hundreds of thousands of
people across North Carolina will
find themselves in a very different
relationship with their health care
provider.
Officials say the only people
who can permanently reduce the
cost of health care are the plan’s
members.
But for that to happen, many
people will have to drastically
change their lifestyles.
“I think with some people, it
doesn’t really matter what you
offer if that’s what they’re used
to doing, that’s what they’re going
to keep doing,” Knight said.
“But offer it to me? I’ll take you
up on it.”
Contact the State and National
Editor at statnat@unc.edu.
CORRECTIONS
■ Due to a reporting error, the
Feb. 18 article “Council to eye devel
opers” states that the Town Council’s
committee on parking lots 2 and 5
was to receive a short list for poten
tial developers on both lots.
It actually was set to receive a
short list of developers for lot 5
and the downtown Wallace Deck;
a decision on lot 2 will come later.
To report corrrections, contact Managing Editor
Chris Coletta at ccoletta@email.unc.edu.
Gllje sa% (Ear Uteri
P.O. Box 3257, Chapel Hill, NC 27515
Michelle Jarboe, Editor, 962-4086
Advertising & Business, 962-1163
News, Features, Sports, 962-0245
One copy per person; additional copies may be
purchased at The Daily Tar Heel for $.25 each.
© 2005 DTH Publishing Corp.
All rights reserved
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