Ongoing Kaiser mental health care workers’ strike impacts access to services
Posted: December 6, 2022
Educators and other members of the State of Hawaii’s Employer-Union Health Benefits Trust Fund (EUTF) will be able to switch their health coverage enrollment from Kaiser to the Hawaii Medical Service Association (HMSA) due to the Kaiser Permanente mental health care employees’ strike, which is now in its fourth month.
In a special EUTF board meeting Tuesday, trustees voted to allow employees under Kaiser plans to appeal to switch providers if they are impacted by Kaiser’s shortage of mental and behavioral health care services.
Members will have until the end of the National Union of Healthcare Workers (NUHW, the union representing Kaiser employees) strike or June 30, 2023, whichever comes first, to submit appeals related to changing coverage for active employees from Kaiser to HMSA if the reason is difficulty in accessing Kaiser mental and behavioral health services.
EUTF issued a memo Tuesday afternoon outlining the change and steps members need to take to file an appeal and switch their medical coverage.
About 60 Kaiser mental health care clinicians, including psychologists, social workers, psychiatric nurses and chemical dependency counselors, have been on strike for almost 100 days, impacting access to critical mental health services.
The Hawaii Employer-Union Health Benefits Trust Fund (EUTF) provides medical, chiropractic, prescription drug, dental, vision and life insurance benefits to all eligible State of Hawaii and county employees, as well as retirees.
Impact on HSTA members
During Tuesday’s meeting, HSTA President and EUTF Board Trustee Osa Tui, Jr. shared concerns from HSTA members about the lack of mental health care access and their need for a solution. Members’ identities were kept anonymous.
“I am currently diagnosed with major depressive disorder with recurrent episodes and it is really hard to get the treatment I need,” one HSTA member shared. “I have to wait two months for an appointment and it has been two years since I was checked by a psychiatrist to update my medication because the wait time is long. I’m lucky that the pandemic and the state of being an educator didn’t exacerbate my mental health, but I think of the people who have Kaiser and need that treatment as soon as they can. I am seriously debating paying out of pocket to see an out-of-service provider because of it.”
Despite the lack of access to care, the member said, “I fully support the mental health workers that are striking because honestly with the outrageous caseload that they have to deal with, Kaiser needs to hire more professionals and provide sound benefits for them.”
Another HSTA member is ready to change companies after her husband couldn’t get the care he needed for over a year.
“My husband has not been able to get the help he needed from Kaiser. He was on a waitlist for over a year and we just gave up. We finally found a specialized therapist on our own and she luckily took Kaiser. But we were to the point where we were just going to pay for it. Kaiser did not help us at all to find him mental health help. He called their hotline multiple times in the last two years and told them he was suicidal. He has anxiety attacks weekly. We are ready to switch insurance companies.”
A teacher from Maui testified during the EUTF meeting and said, “During the strike, Kaiser has canceled five appointments with my therapist, and this has been really hard on me. I do support the people on strike and know why the strike is happening because I understand the bigger picture. My therapist is on strike because this is happening now. It’s not fair. It’s not fair to make Kaiser members wait several weeks or months to make an appointment. And I have no doubt that they would rather be seeing clients than be on strike. Kaiser may be saying that everything’s fine, but it’s really not.”
Have you or a loved one been denied mental health care during the Kaiser strike? Click here to file complaints with government authorities and regulators.
According to the NUHW, this is the longest strike in the history of mental health care workers in the United States.
Tui said that “these workers have been out for 15 weeks. They’re not out for nothing. They’re out for legitimate reasons. They have concerns. They see these patients all the time, but they haven’t seen them in the past 15 weeks. This is not something that we need to just brush off. This is something serious, something that we need to take care of.”
Kaiser employees are looking for higher wages to balance their increased caseloads and better retirement benefits for new hires, but efforts to achieve a contract have stalled at the bargaining table.
Photo courtesy of the National Union of Healthcare Workers.