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State Employees About To See Changes To Their Health Plans

Capitol

Note: SDPB employees are covered under the state health plan. 

South Dakota State employees are about to see changes to their health plans. House members have passed a bill that revises  state health coverage.  

Republican Representative Tim Reed supports the bill. He says it improves current employee health plans. 

Reed says  tiered plans are  more like  private sector plans, but he urges caution. 

“It should release $12 million that can bring state employees closer to the market midpoint and we have to make sure that happens. I mean this – the cost of this is going up and you could have somebody at the lower end of the pay scales not being able to afford their healthcare and we don’t want those employees to leave and we want them to be able to afford, you know, life in general.” 

Reed  supports the bill but says if it negatively impacts state workers he will move to reverse the changes. 

Democratic Representative Ryan Cwach is  against the bill. 

Cwach says it will result in higher out of pocket expenses. 

He says the state health plan is not currently losing money and this is an overcorrection. 

“What we’re going to do, if we vote for this, is we’re going to be telling state employees that there’s going to be a savings of 12 million in costs in the state health plan, but state employees are pretty smart. They know where that savings is coming from, it’s coming from them.” 

Cwach says while the bill will result in slight pay increases this year, many state employees will lose that gain by next year.