Teachers, state employees and retirees on Georgia’s State Health Benefit Plan can expect an increase in their insurance premiums next year, although options in the program will remain relatively stable for many of the plan’s 650,000 members.
The final 2017 rates for the $3 billion program were approved Thursday by the state Board of Community Health. They show that, on average, premiums will increase about 2.5 percent, depending on the plan and who is covered. The state is adding an additional Medicare Advantage plan for retirees. Overall, co-pays, deductibles and insurance providers will largely remain the same.
Jeff Rickman, who oversees the plan for the state Department of Community Health, said the increase aimed to bolster the plan's finances. The rates have generally held steady over the past few years after a period of turmoil, when teachers and employees complained the state had raided the program's reserves to pay bills as premiums ballooned and benefits were cut.
This year, average insurance premiums had remained the same or decreased by more than $21 per month, something that had been a welcome development for many members. But the increase next year is the same percentage as what some teachers are getting in pay raises, said John Palmer, a Cobb County school band director and spokesman for Teachers Rally to Advocate for Georgia Insurance Choices, a teacher, employee and retiree activist group better known as TRAGIC.
“Plan deductibles, while adhering to the limits imposed by the Affordable Care Act, are still unaffordable for many state employees, teachers, and noncertified staff” such as bus drivers, Palmer said.
The state is still looking for ways to cut costs in the program, which has been projected to run a deficit as soon as 2018.
DCH Commissioner Clyde Reese said an eligibility audit is ongoing about the 295,000 dependents enrolled in the program to confirm they should be getting state-subsidized health coverage. A similar audit done in 2005 found more than 30,000 people who should not have been in the program, at a cost of more than $35 million.
The department is also auditing the program’s pharmacy benefits manager to make sure the state is paying the right amount for drugs.
The DCH won early kudos for how it has handled a new advisory council created to keep the plan’s members in the loop about its operation and costs. Clara Keith, a retiree who has worked with the state Department of Education, is on the council and said members were “very pleased” with how the DCH handled discussion at the council’s first meeting earlier this month.
Issues about the program came to a head in early 2014, after the state decided to have just one company — Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Georgia — provide coverage as it also increased out-of-pocket costs. After howls of protest, Gov. Nathan Deal and state lawmakers added money to the plan to eliminate many of the increases.
In summer of 2014, the DCH then added more companies and plans to the program. State officials also forced local school districts to pay more to insure bus drivers, cafeteria workers and other school personnel, shifting about $160 million in additional annual expenses to the districts over the past two legislative sessions.
The state said such coverage had long been subsidized by teachers, state employees and retirees on the plan. Teachers, however, say insurance for such workers is vital to help keep low-paid but important employees on the job. And they say the increased costs have proved to be a hardship for some school districts.
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