Behn: State Employees Should Pay 20 Percent of Health Care Premiums

Sen. Jerry Behn, R-Boone, along with Gov. Terry Branstad and Lt. Gov. Kim Reynolds, announced recently that they would pay 20 percent of the cost of their health insurance premiums starting in August.

Branstad signed an executive order allowing state leaders and government employees to voluntarily do the same. That would cost a single person on the least expensive insurance plan about $1,000 each year, according to a release from Behn's Senate Republican Leader office.

The release said that Behn felt, “it is important for leaders to lead by example and he hopes Senate Majority Leader Mike Gronstal of Council Bluffs will join in paying a portion of his costs in order to reduce the size of government and allow the hardworking taxpayers of Iowa to keep more of their own money. Given the magnitude of the economic issues facing our state and country, this common sense step is simply the right thing to do.”

According to information from the Iowa Department of Administrative Services single full-time employees don't have to pay any premiums for single health insurance plans and pay $265 to $280 a month for family coverage in three out of five plans available in January 2012. Part-time state employees pay more.

If state employees working full time voluntarily paid 20 percent of their premiums, their monthly bill would range from $91 to $355 depending on which plan they chose. While some covered employees pay no premiums they are charged co-payments for office visits and other services, according to information on the plans available here.

The average insured and employed Iowan contributed about $832 for single coverage and $3,670 for family coverage in 2010, according to figures from the National Conference of State Legislatures. (That would be a monthly premium of about $70 and $306 a month respectively.)

Both the Iowa House and the Senate have offered proposals asking state employees to fund a portion of their premiums but those measures have always failed.

In February Rep. David Deyoe, R-Nevada, told the Ames Tribune:

“In the House last year, we even voted to charge ourselves $100 per month for health insurance as legislators, but that did not survive in the Senate.”

Rep. Lisa Heddens, D-Ames, also said in February: “you need to realize that (state-union) health care negotiations have produced a lot of alternative plans” that do cost union workers out-of-pocket money, including higher co-pays and additional premiums for state employees who add spouses and family members to their coverage.

What do you think? Should state employees and elected officials pay up to 20 percent of their health insurance premiums or should it continue to be funded through tax dollars.