March 4, 2011. Rick Scott wants you to pick up $9,000 or more of annual costs for your family’s insurance premiums
By Peter Schorsch
Link to original article at saintpetersblog.
(March 2, 2011)
Gov. Rick Scott has proposed a deep cut in state workers’ health benefits – $7,000 a year for the most popular family plan — but many state workers seem unaware of it, reports the News Service of Florida’s Lilly Rockwell.
Health News Florida discovered that while trying to gather opinions about the proposal.
“No ma’am, I haven’t heard of that,” said Heather Brown, an administrative secretary at the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services.
Sue Bruce, a personal secretary at the Florida State Courts, said: “I don’t know much about what goes on across the state.”
“I’m vaguely familiar,” said John Tupps, information specialist at the Governor’s Office.
On Feb. 7, Scott proposed that the state cap its contribution to employee health insurance at $5,000, whether the worker needs coverage for one person or a family of 10. If approved by the Legislature, the proposal would wallop the many state employees who have family plans that cost $14,000 or more a year.
Scott proposed it at the same time he announced he wants to require state workers to contribute 5 percent of their pay to their pension plans and during the same month that he visited state agencies to talk about massive layoffs. Those two subjects captured all the headlines.
So the gravity of the proposed health-insurance cut — or even the fact that it has been suggested — did not reach 11 out of 16 state employees HNF called Monday.
“There’s probably not a single person in this office who knows anything about this proposal,” said Steve Murray, communications director at the Department of Veteran’s Affairs. “This just hasn’t been a large part of the media coverage coming from Tallahassee.”
The proposed cap, which would not take effect until 2013, is aimed at holding down the state’s future health-care costs. During the 2009-10 fiscal year, the state spent nearly $1.8 billion on health benefits for 375,000 workers, retirees and family members.
But the proposal also fits neatly into Scott’s political philosophy, in reducing the cost of government and shaping benefits to look more like those in the private sector.
The $5,000 contribution would apply to all — not just young, single workers, but also to older workers and those with families. Now the state pays an average for family coverage of $12,000 per worker, so the $5,000 cap would save the state about $7,000 per employee.
The state pays about $6,000 for each single worker’s coverage.
Read more by linking to original article at saintpetersblog.