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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Senate Majority Leader Tony Rand and House Majority Leader Hugh Holliman, both Democrats, have been trying to get the bill passed by April 1, so that benefit changes could be enacted by July 1. Those changes include reductions in benefits for plan members and premium increases for dependents (which are paid by members) that have caused an outcry from employee and retirement groups.
The bill also provides $250 million to keep the plan solvent through the remainder of this fiscal year ending June 30. Gov. Beverly Perdue announced earlier this month that she was making an emergency appropriation of that money to shore up the plan, but legislative leaders question her authority to do that.
Jack Walker, the plan's executive administrator, doubted the bill would pass in time for the deadline. He said that dealing with additional concerns would likely push the benefit changes to October 1, because the plan would have a difficult time notifying teachers once schools close for the summer.
But he and Holliman said the legislation could pass by early April and still notify members in time to make the changes by July 1.
Several lawmakers also expressed exasperation that the bill is a short term fix that does nothing to address a long-standing problem with the plan: It is unattractive to younger, healthier and therefore less costly employees and their families — a group that would help shore up the plan's finances.
Holliman said Senate leaders have committed to work on a long-term fix later this session.
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Re: Health plan fix may not pass by April 1
you can start asking new hires to pay for insurance but us retirees are just making it now. we accepted jobs as teachers and state employees back when we made 3-4 thousand dollars a year and accepted in exchange for lower pay employer paid health care. as in the bailey case this is a contract and if broken will only cost more in legal fees. if the state really is broke maybe it should forego pay raises this year or raise revenues but don't try to balance the budget on the back of the retiree