Gov. Asa Hutchinson wants to provide $20 million more in state funds to the public school employees health insurance plan in the current fiscal year, which ends June 30.
The governor asked the Joint Budget Committee in a letter dated April 1 to amend Senate Bill 158 -- the appropriation for the Department of Education's Division of Elementary and Secondary Education -- to provide sufficient appropriation to transfer $20 million to the Employee Benefits Division for additional contributions to the insurance program.
Greg Rogers, assistant commissioner for fiscal and administration at the state Department of Education, told lawmakers Thursday that the Legislature has already authorized a $20 million increase, starting in fiscal 2022, which begins July 1.
"However, the deficit that the [Employee Benefits Division's] board is having to deal with for the employees insurance program is pretty significant, so due to the restoration of [certain general revenue] funding from last fiscal year, the carry-forward in the public school fund allows us to make one more one-time contribution of $20 million for [fiscal] 2021 to help EBD try to close that deficit they have with the insurance for public school teachers," he said.
The state's budget administrator, Jake Bleed, said the additional $20 million will be on top of $90 million that the state's public school fund provided to the plan.
Rogers said the State and Public School Life and Health Insurance Board has been discussing, but has not decided on, various options to make changes in the public school employees health insurance plan.
"But we are looking at the levers that they can pull from -- decreasing benefits, to increasing premiums, to requesting additional funds from the General Assembly," he said.
Afterward, state Department of Transformation and Shared Services spokeswoman Alex Johnston confirmed that the board has discussed options, including a 10% increase in premiums for active employees, a 15% increase in premiums for pre-65 retirees, a 20% increase in premiums for post-65 retirees, and increasing the out-of-pocket maximum by $250 for all categories of plan participants.
She said she doesn't know whether the board will decide these options when it meets April 14 or later.
She said the projected deficit in the public school employees health insurance plan in fiscal 2022 is $73.5 million.
The public school employees health insurance plan covers about 117,000 people, including working employees, retirees and dependents, Johnston said.