Nassau County scours for new health insurer to replace struggling Excelsior Plan

Nassau officials are scrambling to find new health insurance for thousands of civil service employees after a plan to provide them with less coverage backfired, leaving a $43 million hole in the 2024 county budget.

The roughly 4,200 county employees represented by CSEA Local 830, the county's largest employee union, agreed last year to move from the state's Empire Plan to the Excelsior Plan, saving the county about $280 million over their 13-year contract in exchange for wage increases and signing bonuses. Nassau's current budget is about $4 billion.

But those savings won't be realized because the Excelsior Plan — which employees have said provides less coverage and passes more of the costs for prescription drugs and doctors' visits onto the patient — is set to go bankrupt due to low enrollment. The state has given the county until Oct. 1 to find a new carrier or roll these employees back into the previous plan.

Employees would roll over into the Empire Plan, which costs the county significantly more, if another plan to replace Excelsior with comparable coverage doesn't happen within the next two months. The county is hiring a health care consultant to assist in finding a new plan.

The union and county seem to be at an impasse over their options.

A monthly financial report from the county's Office of Management and Budget as well as testimony from the county budget director earlier this month indicate the $646 million for employee benefits included in this year's adopted budget falls short of the $689 million needed.

"We are challenged right now because our collective bargaining agreement with CSEA went a little sideways," Nassau County Budget Director Andy Persich told legislators in a budget hearing on Aug. 5. "We have active negotiations going on with the CSEA union to try to resolve that issue. I don't want to say much more than that, but that's what's going on right now."

Wendi Bowie, a spokeswoman for CSEA's Long Island region, said representatives from the union and the county met in an attempt to negotiate a plan for members’ health care going forward.

"However, the county abruptly ended discussions and canceled further discussions. CSEA hopes to get back to the table with the county in the near future to come to a mutual agreement for the betterment of CSEA members," Bowie told Newsday on Thursday.

Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman and CSEA leaders in August 2023 agreed to a contract that raises wages nearly 25% over 13 years.

The Blakeman administration did not answer questions seeking comment for this story such as whether the county is prepared to cover the lost savings over then next 13 years and how they plan to do it. Peter Bee, the county's labor attorney, declined to comment.

Richard Kessel, chairman of the Nassau Interim Finance Authority, told Newsday that the fiscal oversight board is concerned over how much more the CSEA contract might cost and whether any changes would force the reopening of other collective bargaining agreements.

"Obviously, we are concerned about it and closely monitoring because it could have a significant impact on the county's finances," Kessel said.

Legis. Delia DeRiggi-Whitton (D-Glen Cove) said, "The Blakeman administration promised the legislature and CSEA that this deal served everyone’s best interests. Now, it’s clear it serves no one."

"In the end, it’s the taxpayers who pay the price for his failures," she said.

Switching all active employees and retirees to the Excelsior Plan represented 75% of the county's overall savings in the contract, according to a report by the county's Office of Legislative Budget Review in September 2023.

A clause in the agreement allows the county to reopen the contract, but Bowie asserts "that clause only applies if the employees were unable to move over to the Excelsior Plan. In this case, all employees did move over. Therefore, the clause does not apply."

The county is required to provide health insurance for these employees that is mutually agreed upon. The union is asking for its members' premium contribution levels to remain the same, Bowie said.

Retirees formerly represented by the CSEA did not have to switch to the Excelsior Plan. They won a judge's order in December 2023 to halt the change in health coverage, alleging the union and county had no right to remove them from the Empire Plan. The litigation is ongoing.

There are about 5,500 county retirees who were members of CSEA.

By Candice Ferrette

candice.ferrette@newsday.comcandiceferrette

Candice Ferrette covers Nassau County government and politics on Long Island. She has been a reporter at Newsday since 2011.