The Joint Appropriations committee is considering how to compensate for a large gap in the state employee health care budget. The Bureau of Human Resources gave suggestions to committee members Friday morning, which included raising out-of-pocket limits and other areas. The proposed plan design changes would create five point eight million dollar savings, but would fall on state employees. Senator Larry Tidemann says he has a few concerns about the welfare of the employees with these suggestions.
“Well, my goal is to protect state employees as well as the state. I think, I’m concerned that we may be bumping up the cost to some of our state employees, and I’ll need to see what kind of an impact that’ll have on them. Nobody determines that you’re going to stay well and you’re going to get sick based on income level. The impact on our lower paid employees is going to be much greater than our upper paid employees,” Tidemann says.
Tidemann says there’s no way to predict for illnesses that contribute to the budget gap, and hopes to create a solution without putting employees in tough financial situations.