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DENNIS ODA / DODA@STARADVERTISER.COM
Hawaii public school teachers announced they had filed a class-action lawsuit against the state to block changes to their health coverage. Left to right, Moanalua High teacher Wray Jose, attorney Paul Alston, teachers union President Wil Okabe, retired teacher Gail Kono and teacher Joan Lewis attended a news conference yesterday in the offices of the law firm of Alston Hunt Floyd & Ing.
Public school teachers are suing to prevent changes in their health insurance coverage.
The lawsuit filed today in Circuit Court against the state seeks to prevent the state from transferring health insurance coverage for 15,000 current and retired teachers from the union’s Voluntary Employees Beneficiary Association trust to the state Employer-Union Benefits Trust Fund.
The teachers in the class action lawsuit say the employer’s trust fund is "teetering and financially insolvent."
They say Voluntary Employees Beneficiary Association plan offered by the Hawaii State Teachers Association is solvent and less costly to operate.
The lawsuit also seeks the return of about $3.9 million that was allegedly wrongfully taken from the VEBA trust by the state.
