Lefties Love Insurance Companies
Gov. Scott Walker's labor reforms finally took effect last Wednesday. Literally the next day, Byron York of the Washington Examiner had a report showing why they are a boon to Wisconsin's taxpayers:


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The Kaukauna School District, in the Fox River Valley of Wisconsin near Appleton, has about 4,200 students and about 400 employees. It has struggled in recent times and this year faced a deficit of $400,000. But after the law went into effect, at 12:01 a.m. Wednesday, school officials put in place new policies they estimate will turn that $400,000 deficit into a $1.5 million surplus. And it's all because of the very provisions that union leaders predicted would be disastrous. . . .

Some of the most important improvements in Kaukauna's outlook are because of the new limits on collective bargaining.

In the past, Kaukauna's agreement with the teachers union required the school district to purchase health insurance coverage from something called WEA Trust--a company created by the Wisconsin teachers union. "It was in the collective bargaining agreement that we could only negotiate with them," says Arnoldussen. "Well, you know what happens when you can only negotiate with one vendor." This year, WEA Trust told Kaukauna that it would face a significant increase in premiums.

Now, the collective bargaining agreement is gone, and the school district is free to shop around for coverage. And all of a sudden, WEA Trust has changed its position. "With these changes, the schools could go out for bids, and lo and behold, WEA Trust said, 'We can match the lowest bid,' " says Republican state Rep. Jim Steineke, who represents the area and supports the Walker changes. At least for the moment, Kaukauna is staying with WEA Trust, but saving substantial amounts of money.
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Free of work rules that limited teacher hours, Kaukauna is also able to reduce class sizes.

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, meanwhile, reports that the WEA Trust "is refusing to release hundreds of thousands of dollars in federal money to school districts that recently dropped the company in favor of less expensive providers."

These stories show how so-called collective bargaining in the public sector is actually a conspiracy to rip off the taxpayers. But if you've been reading this column, you already knew that. What even we didn't realize until now is that the lefties claiming to champion "worker rights" were actually defending insurance companies!