CHAPEL HILL — Michele Burris is a single mom with two kids. An independent contractor, she pays $842 per month for health insurance.

Rob Maitland is an attorney who says, like many small business owners, he struggles to provide “any kind of health care” to his employees.

And Peggy Akers, who pays health insurance premiums of $700 a month to keep her and her husband covered, says she felt like crying.

The Town Council’s vote to offer continued health insurance to outgoing members who had served two terms touched off a firestorm. The council quickly rescinded its vote last week.

But the e-mails and signatures on an online petition keep piling up.

For some, the issue was a last straw. They coupled the health care vote with criticism of other council actions, from the hiring of a public art director to the renaming of Airport Road.

For many, however, the issue was health care. The council made mistakes, members now agree. They didn’t discuss it long enough or seek enough public input. They didn’t explain why they thought it was a good idea.

And they didn’t take into account how much health care — getting it, paying for it, losing it — worries people.

“When you hold a mirror up to it, it does reflect the politics we have with health care in America,” council member Mark Kleinschmidt said Thursday. “We have health care tied to employment.”

What governments offer

Council member Bill Thorpe asked for a review of what local governments offer departing members last spring. He says if he knew then how some people would react, he never would have asked.

But the review found that several local governments already continue coverage.

Orange County pays $445 per month to insure one former county commissioner. The policy covers people who have served at least two terms and is good until Medicare kicks in, after which the county will pick up supplemental insurance and a prescription drug benefit.

Durham County and the Town of Cary offer similar coverage. Durham County, like Orange, pays 100 percent of the premium.

“Everybody should be treated the same,” said Thorpe, who has served on the council 11 years.

Chapel Hill, like Orange County, already offers currently serving members insurance. (See related story below.) Seven of the nine council members have enrolled. Four of the five county commissioners have enrolled.

In a guest column last week, Chapel Hill Mayor Kevin Foy explained that continuing coverage was meant to protect a member who might develop a medical problem while in office and than have difficulty obtaining insurance afterward.

“From the council’s point of view, the committee looked at all these things and found (continuing coverage) was relatively common and not something off the wall,” Foy said.

Tenuous connection

Jonathan Oberlander is an associate professor of health policy and administration at UNC’s School of Public Health, and associate professor of social medicine at the School of Medicine. He studies Medicare, health politics, health care reform both nationally and at the state level, and American public policy.

Oberlander said he doesn’t know what set people off. The council insurance vote occurred the same night that members passed an 11 percent tax hike and approved a pilot program for publicly financed elections.

But he says the health care controversy could only have erupted in the United States.

“There’s no other industrialized democracy where this would be an issue,” he said in an interview Friday. “This is a particularly American experience.”

That’s because, as Kleinschmidt said, in this country most insurance for working people is tied to having a job.

“That connection,” Oberlander added, “becomes particularly tenuous during hard economic times.”

“If you lose your job in the United States you lose your health insurance,” he said. “That is a dreadful circumstance.”

Of course it didn’t help that council members were voting for their own benefits. That reminded Oberlander of elected officials in Washington.

“Every single member of Congress has health insurance subsidized by the government,” he said. “We have a policy that distances them from the rest of the population.”

Most council members elect coverage

The town of Chapel Hill surveyed other local governments before the council voted on continuing care for outgoing members.

The survey asked whether governments offered current elected officials insurance and whether they continued coverage after their terms ended.

Chapel Hill, Carrboro, Cary, Orange and Durham counties all pay 100 percent of elected officials’ coverage while in office. Orange and Durham counties also pay 100 percent of coverage for commissioners who leave office after two full terms.

Two of Carrboro’s seven aldermen participate in the town’s plan. The town pays their individual premiums of $417.46 per month, rising to $454.04 per month July 1, according to Desiree White, human resources director.

Four of Orange County’s five commissioners participate in the county’s plan, according to Diane Shepherd, the county’s benefits manager. The county also pays for insurance for one former commissioner.

Seven of the nine Chapel Hill Town Council members have their monthly health care premiums paid by the town, according to information provided by Town Manager Roger Stancil. In some cases, monthly premiums include dependent coverage:

-- Mayor Kevin Foy, 7 years as mayor, four years as a council member, $186.18

-- Matt Czajkowski, 1 year on council, $351.00

-- Laurin Easthom, 3 years on council, $0.00 (has not enrolled)

-- Sally Greene, 5 years on council, $266.14

-- Ed Harrison, 7 years on council, $302.11

-- Mark Kleinschmidt, 7 years on council, $186.18

-- Bill Strom, 9 years on council, $351.00

-- Bill Thorpe, 11 years on council, $186.18

-- Jim Ward, 9 years on council, $0.00 (has not enrolled)

Council members also receive a salary. With 3 percent raises effective Oct. 1, the same as for town employees, the mayor will earn $21,782 per year; council members will earn $13,015.

Compensation, like the pilot publicly financed election program the town is launching, are meant to make council work an option for people who could not otherwise afford to hold public office, elected officials have said.