Under pressure from lawmakers and retirees, Gov. Bobby Jindal’s administration announced today it will lessen the impact of upcoming changes for the state worker health insurance program. As The Associated Press reports, increases in out-of-pocket costs and deductibles that had been planned for retirees effective March 1 have been scrapped, and the ones planned for active employees have been reduced by 10% to 20%.
As a trade-off, premiums will rise July 1 by as much as 11% for both retirees and employees, to get the insurance program back on track after it has nearly drained its reserve fund to cover monthly costs. Commissioner of Administration Kristy Nichols, the governor’s chief budget adviser, announced the adjustments in a meeting with the House and Senate budget committees.
“I think the bulk of the concerns we have heard will be addressed through these changes,” Nichols told lawmakers.
Lawmakers have been inundated with complaints about the health benefit rewrite for the 230,000 state workers, public school teachers, retirees and dependents covered through the Office of Group Benefits. They urged the Jindal administration to rethink its course. Retirees and employees have said they’d prefer premium hikes to hefty increases in their out-of-pocket costs. By shifting to increased premiums, higher costs are shared between the state and its employees, rather than placed entirely on the workers.
That means employees and retirees will pay about $36 million more annually for health care starting July 1, while state agencies will face an estimated $56 million cost hike and local school boards a projected $38 million health care cost increase. Group Benefits members will have until Dec. 7 to choose their benefit plan for next year. Read the full story.
