Legislation to fix for the State Health Plan may not pass by April 1, a deadline legislative leaders was important in order to save roughly $45 million.

A bill that would cost the general fund roughly $660 million to cover a shortfall and pay for premium increases for the 667,000 state employees, teachers and retirees on the plan bogged down in the House Insurance Committee today as members raised questions about the proposal and offered amendments to change it, Dan Kane reports.

Several were upset when a committee chairman, Rep. Bruce Goforth, an Asheville Democrat, initially told them the amendments could not be added because they would require an examination into how they would affect the plan's cost, and there wasn't time to do that.

Goforth later decided to hold a second meeting so that the amendments could be considered. But the second meeting won't take place until March 31, a day before the deadline.

Even then, the bill would need to be heard by a second committee, Appropriations, before it could come to the House floor. And if the bill is amended, it would go back to the Senate for reconsideration.

More after the jump.

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