Day 15

January 31, 2005

Good morning all! It’s the last day of January, remember when the football season was long gone by now?

The bill of the day is HB #89-Retired state employees-insurance benefits sponsored by the Honorable Del McOmie of Lander. It is scheduled to be heard in the House Appropriations Committee this morning.

As the situation currently stands, once a state employee retires, there is no help for the costs of covering their health insurance payments. If an employee retires at age 55, and they are not eligible for Medicare until they are 65, then for 10 years they have to eat the cost of their coverage.

This was not such a big deal backing the days when coverage could be had for a reasonable fee, but since the advent of insurance company cost increases, it has become impossible for many. The insurance cost can easily equal 50% or more of their retirement checks.

This is a very bad situation! The state is ending up with employees who would really like to retire, but can’t. That results in a lack of job openings for younger people, and a lack of advancement openings for those in the middle management ranks.

Since the oldest employees are generally the highest paid, the state is losing the cost savings that results from older employees leaving and newer ones coming into the system. So the idea of subsidizing the insurance costs for those who retire is not just an additional cost to state government.

Representative McOmie has tirelessly worked on this issue for the last several years, but due to the cost of subsidizing the retirees he has not succeeded. I hope he does this year, because there are some cost savings that will result, and also because employees who would really like to be gone are not going to be the most productive workers.

We will add this bill to our list of bills to track as they work through the system.

Until tomorrow!

Keith