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West Virginia PEIA: No health plan premium hikes next year, but “doom is coming.”

By Phil Kabler, Charleston Gazette-Mail

CHARLESTON, W.Va. — State and public school employees who get health insurance through West Virginia Public Employees Insurance Agency will enjoy one more year of coverage with no premium increases.

However, the plan presented Thursday to the PEIA Finance Board calls for a series of yearly employee premium hikes beginning July 1, 2023. The plan calls for a 9% premium hike for the 2023-24 benefits year, followed by 16% and 12% hikes the following two years.

Over the three-year period, employee premiums will increase by a total of $50.5 million, according to the PEIA five-year plan.

Heads of the state’s teachers unions urged Finance Board members to pressure the Legislature to come up with funding options to avoid consecutive years of steep premium increases they said teachers and other state employees can’t afford.

“Doom is coming,” West Virginia Education Association President Dale Lee told the board. “We know that. Unless there’s a willingness by the Legislature to do what they said they would do in 2018, then, next year, we’re in real trouble, and the year after and the year after.” …

To read more: https://www.wvgazettemail.com/news/peia-no-health-plan-premium-hikes-next-year-but-doom-is-coming/article_02a2b5f0-cc1d-54bf-befc-0e9770b1e170.html

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