Audience members look over worksheets containing proposed benefit cuts during Thursday’s PEIA hearing at the University of Charleston. The insurance agency’s board plans to cut state and school workers’ health insurance benefits by $25 million next year.
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Jon Dodds doesn’t like the West Virginia Public Employees Insurance Agency’s plan to cut state and school workers’ health insurance benefits by $25 million next year.
During the past week, Dodds, a network engineer at Fairmont State University, has crisscrossed the state, speaking against the proposed PEIA cuts. He has attended public hearings in five cities, driven 998 miles. Thursday night’s hearing at the University of Charleston was his final stop.
“I’m angry,” Dodds said. “I’m angry we’re here again.”
In the last of a series of statewide public meetings, teachers, retirees, state employees and union leaders told the PEIA Finance Board Thursday night that its proposal to cut benefits to cover higher-than-projected increases in prescription drug costs was a terrible idea.
“The increases in co-insurance, medical deductibles, out-of-pocket costs for prescription drugs are totally unacceptable,” said Dale Lee, president of the West Virginia Education Association. “We just continue to pile it on. We just can’t take it anymore.”
Joe White, executive director of the state School Service Personnel Association, said state lawmakers must find a way to adequately fund PEIA to stave off cuts year after year. White suggested putting a tax on political ads, a proposal that drew laughter and applause at Thursday’s meeting.
“The proposed cuts hurt our families in a bad way,” said White. “We need a dedicated funding source so we don’t find ourselves in the same place year after year.”
Other speakers suggested raising the state’s tobacco tax and taxing soft drinks and other sugary beverages.
Teachers said the PEIA benefit cuts make it difficult to stay in the profession.
“We have to fight this increase,” said Jay O’Neal, a Kanawha County seventh-grade English teacher. “Otherwise, I have no choice but to leave the profession or leave the state.
“It’s hard to look at this and say I’m going to do this for next 30 years. There’s frustration.”
The PEIA board hasn’t proposed across-the-board premium increases, but the 2017-18 plan calls for calculating premiums based on total family income. PEIA now sets premiums on a sliding scale based solely on the public employee’s salary. So PEIA essentially subsidizes public employees who have spouses with higher salaries working in the private sector.
The board also has proposed raising specialty drug co-pays from $50 to $100 for drugs on a preferred list, and from $100 to $150 for drugs not on the list. The prescription drug out-of-pocket maximum would increase from $2,500 to $5,000 a year.
“These increases will be devastating,” Lee said. “PEIA has become a plan that punishes those who need the medical care the most.”
Proposed changes to other PEIA plans include:
Local employees plan, which covers some county, municipal and public agency employees: 4 percent premium increase ($5 million) and $6.6 million in the proposed benefit cuts.
Medicare retirees plan: 4 percent premium increase ($2.8 million), $9.8 million in benefit cuts.
Non-Medicare retirees, made up of retired public employees who have not reached age 65: 4 percent premium increase ($1.69 million), $2.8 million in benefit cuts.
Retirees could face $17 million in benefit cuts.
The PEIA board plans to vote on a final plan on Dec. 1. Any changes to active employees’ benefits would take effect July 1, 2017. Retirees would see the cuts take effect Jan. 1.
The PEIA Finance Board has been looking for ways to offset higher prescription drug spending, after Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin notified the agency earlier this year that there would be no funding increase for PEIA included in the proposed 2017-18 state budget.
Andrew Robinson, a Democrat who recently won a seat in the House of Delegates’ 36th District, attended Thursday’s public hearing. No other incoming or current legislator showed up.
Written comments on the proposed changes can be submitted to Public Comment, West Virginia Public Employees Insurance Agency, 601 57th St. SE, Suite 2, Charleston, WV 25304, or by email at [email protected].
Reach Eric Eyre at [email protected], 304-348-4869 or follow @ericeyre on Twitter.
