Depending on your perspective, the decision yesterday by the Public Employees Benefits Board (PEBB) to raise premiums, deductibles, and co-pays for public employees is either a "travesty" or common sense reality.
In a 4-3 vote, the PEBB members decided:
"Due to the state’s budget shortfall, the HCA required that the medical plans meet a budget target that would keep the average employee contribution at around 12%. To do this, the plans increased the costs of certain benefits, deductibles, and out-of-pocket maximums. The employer will continue to pay 88% of the premium costs, based on enrollment across all PEBB medical plans."
This "average employee contribution at around 12%" compares very favorably to those in the private sector that still have jobs and health insurance. According to a 2008 study on state health care costs by the Washington Alliance for a Competitive Economy:“State employee health care benefits are generous, and the 12 percent share of prem! iums paid by employees is low. A recent Towers Perrin survey of 200 large employers found that the average employee’s share of health care premiums was 22.6 percent in 2008, up from 20.1 percent in 2003 (Towers Perrin 2008).”
Despite this fact, PEBB member Greg Devereux (head of the Washington Federation of State Employees) had this to say about the vote:
“This today is an absolute travesty...They (the Legislature) won’t tax anybody else, but they’ll tax state employees…I think it’s a crime. The Legislature didn’t have the guts to provide the health care funds. They are destroying the quality of the workforce in this state.”
Needless to say Devereux was among the no votes. Meanwhile the Seattle Times reports:
"In what is becoming an annual ordealfor policyholders, Regence BlueShield is raising premiums for 135,000individual health-plan members in Washington by an average 17 percenton Aug. 1.
It is the third consecutive year that the state's largest provider ofindividual coverage has boosted rates by double digits. And it comesafter two other insurers, Group Health Cooperative and LifeWise HealthPlan of Washington, recently imposed similarly steep premium increases."
Considering the average public employee versus private employee health care costs, was the PEBB's decision "a crime" or instead grounded in economic reality? It is the third consecutive year that the state's largest provider ofindividual coverage has boosted rates by double digits. And it comesafter two other insurers, Group Health Cooperative and LifeWise HealthPlan of Washington, recently imposed similarly steep premium increases."
It appears the only alternative would be taxes increases or additional service cuts to provide the benefits demanded by Devereux and others.
