Life Insurance

They are among the scores of readers who contacted Newsday after a report on the widespread practice of giving health benefits - usually fully paid - to political appointees on part-time boards. Many of those board members are also eligible to receive the benefits for life at retirement.

"The whole idea of people serving on these boards for an hour a month and getting these benefits goes far beyond what anyone thinks is reasonable," said Myron Holtz, 67, a retired deputy state housing commissioner from Freeport.

The report prompted swift reactions. Officials in Nassau and Suffolk counties and Hempstead and Brookhaven towns have moved to eliminate the benefits, and officials in Huntington, Oyster Bay and Islip are reviewing them. Officials in Southampton - which offers benefits to board members, but requires them to contribute to the cost - have not returned calls.

"The reason why it resonates is that everybody is hurting," said Martin Cantor, director of the Long Island Economic and Social Policy Institute at Dowling College.

In addition to coping with rising costs and little or no growth in wages, more people are worried about losing their health insurance altogether, said Sara Collins, assistant vice president of the Commonwealth Fund, a private foundation in Manhattan that funds health research.

Roughly 12 percent of Long Islanders have no health insurance, according to Jeff Kraut, senior vice president for strategic planning at North Shore Health Systems.

"The cost pressures are forcing, in particular, smaller firms to stop offering coverage," Cantor said. "The other pressure is that all firms are trying to find ways to share more of their costs with their employees."

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