State Health Plan board set to approve sliding scale for premiums

The governing board of the State Health Plan is expected to give state Treasurer Brad Briner the go-ahead Friday to overhaul pricing for state workers as the health plan attempts to deal with a shortfall due in part to rising health care costs.

The plan — which provides insurance to state employees, retirees and their families — is projected to run a deficit next fiscal year of more than half a billion dollars.

Briner, who is the chairman of the board that oversees the plan, has advocated for adjusting premiums based on employee pay, making them more affordable for state employees who earn less, while those who make more would pay more.

The board is scheduled to meet for a vote Friday morning.

Briner previously said it’s likely premiums will go up for most of the plan’s 740,000 members come 2026.

“We may have some more juice to squeeze out of that particular orange,” he told the state board of education last month. “The underlying problem is a cost problem.”

On a recent call with reporters, Briner said the deficit will “require belt tightening of all sorts, but also likely incremental contributions, also from everybody.”

Members who insure only themselves can pay as little as $25 a month for health care. Changing the type of coverage or adding a spouse or children to the plan can raise costs. There are many options, reaching as high as $780 a month.

The board isn’t expected to vote on actual premiums or changes to coverage at Friday’s meeting. Those will be up for approval later this year, according to the treasurer’s office.

Briner is a Republican who won the 2024 election to replace former Treasurer Dale Folwell, a fellow Republican. Folwell, who lost in the Republican primary for governor, spent years asking the Republican-led state legislature, unsuccessfully, to put more money into the State Health Plan as costs rise due to people living longer and requiring more medical care.

Last year, the health plan’s trustees raised premiums for some State Health Plan members, about 26,000 people. There were about 4,200 retirees and 22,000 dependents covered by its Medicare Advantage Plan. Those premium increases started increasing last month.

Trustees also attempted to lower costs by dropping coverage of relatively expensive GLP-1 drugs for the purpose of weight loss, such as Wegovy and Saxenda. At the time, Folwell said, covering the drugs would require doubling monthly premiums for many members.