Pensions and health benefits are completely different, and they need to be treated differently by policy-makers because changes that work for one may or may not work for the other. |
Two-thirds of government employees work in education, public safety, corrections or are judges. You don't want high turnover in those professions, so you need benefits that encourage long-term retention. |
We don't want a situation where your firefighters or your school teachers are jumping out of a job after three or four years to get a better salary offer. One of the most compelling factors in keeping people on the job is their pension benefit. |