ROMER FAILS TO PLACATE UNION REPS LAUSD HEALTH COVERAGE STILL A CONCERN OF TEACHERS, OTHERS.

Byline: Helen Gao Staff Writer

Despite a flurry of meetings, the Los Angeles Unified School District and seven unions representing its employees remained mired Wednesday in a dispute over health benefits.

Representatives of United Teachers Los Angeles, Service Employees International Union Local 99 and officials of other unions met Wednesday morning with Superintendent Roy Romer, but no agreement was reached.

Unions rallied their members at an early morning protest at Manual Arts High School, where more than 100 people participated. The protest is one of a series planned for this month.

Although Romer late Tuesday announced he had found the $40 million needed to maintain employee health benefits at current levels through 2003, the news failed to placate unions.

UTLA president John Perez, who said he stormed out of the meeting with Romer, wants assurance from the district that there would be no health-care cuts in the years to come.

``It's only one-time money,'' he said, referring to the $40 million that the district said came from freezing positions, energy savings and program reductions. ``It doesn't solve the problem. All it does is put the problem off for a year.''

Romer was adamant that changes would have to be made in employee health benefits in the future because the costs are estimated to double to nearly a billion in five years.

He said the kinds of changes he is talking about do not affect the quality of employee health care, and are instead focused on improving the system's efficiency.

For example, he said employees would be given incentives to get generic versus brand-name prescriptions, possibly through lower co-payments.

Another possible change would be to eliminate so-called ``double benefits.'' Currently, if a husband and wife both work for the school district, they receive health-care benefits both through their own and their spouse's plans.