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Rep. Weaver Bill on State Employees’ Health Insurance Contributions Wins Committee Support

AUGUSTA – The Legislature’s State and Local Government Committee voted today for a bill to require that state employees pay a portion of their health insurance costs. The bill’s sponsor, Rep. Windol Weaver, said it would save money for the state and mesh with Governor Baldacci’s proposal on health insurance costs for new state workers.

Rep. Weaver’s bill, LD 417, was changed in committee to set the top employee contribution level at 10 percent, not the 15 percent originally proposed. Under the terms of the revised legislation, state employees will pay 5 percent of their insurance costs starting on October 1, 2009 and 10 percent beginning July 1, 2011. The bill now moves to the full House and Senate.

Rep. Weaver (R-York) said the new requirement would apply to legislators and employees of the executive, legislative and judicial branches whose health insurance is paid out of the General Fund – a total of 5,633 people. In a budget revision released May 1, the governor has proposed that state employees hired after July 1, 2009 pay 15 percent of their health insurance premiums.

“I understand that state employees won’t like this idea,” Rep. Weaver said after the committee vote. “But the simple fact is that the state can’t afford to pay 100 percent of their health insurance premiums. Considering the state’s fiscal predicament, the program as it exists is no longer sustainable.”

Senate Republican leader Kevin Raye (R-Washington) said he is very pleased with the committee’s support of the Weaver bill. “Private employees all across the state are contributing to the cost of health insurance, and at much higher rates than the ones in this bill,” he said. Sen. Jon Courtney (R-York), the assistant Senate GOP leader, called the legislation a simple matter of fairness. “We applaud Rep. Weaver for his leadership in bringing this matter forward,” he said, “and we are thrilled to see the bipartisan support for this commonsense initiative.”

According to figures provided by the Office of Employee Health and Benefits (OEHB), the monthly premium for a single contract as of July 1, 2009, will be $687, which works out to $8,244 per year. At the 5 percent rate, an employee would pay $412. By 2011, when premiums are projected to be $772 a month or $9,260 per year, an employee would pay $926 at the 10 percent rate.

The OEHB statistics show that the General Fund would save $1.7 million with employees paying 5 percent of their premiums and $4.9 million at 10 percent. The 7,467 state employees whose insurance is paid from other sources would not be affected by the change. These workers include many employees of the Department of Transportation and the Department of Health and Human Services, whose health insurance is paid for by the federal government, the Highway Fund and special revenue accounts.

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