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Board Approves Changes to State Health Benefit Plan

January 27th, 2014

The Georgia Board of Community Health unanimously changed the State Health Benefit plan Monday. The changes come in an election year after teachers and other state employees complained about the new plan, which began on January 1.

Under the changes, 650,000 state employees will now have co-pays for things like prescription drugs, doctors’ visits and trips to the emergency room. Prior to the changes, the board moved to a cost sharing arrangement with deductibles and without co-pays.

After the plan started, many enrolled in the various options complained about high out-of-pocket costs.

Department of Community Health Commissioner Clyde Reese says the department listened to their concerns.

“The out-of-pocket costs of these deductibles has caused some financial stress amongst our members. We wanted to be cognizant of these stresses and these concerns and go back and look at ways we can seek to alleviate financial stress on our members.”

Tim Callahan with the Professional Association of Georgia Educators says the changes will benefit its 84,000 members.

“There was a great amount of worry and concern as the details of the plan became known in January, and we’re glad that the governor and the Department of community health have listened and are going to be responding.”

But Callahan says teachers want more input about plan in the future.

Tracey-Ann Nelson with the Georgia Association of Educators also says the changes will be an improvement for its 40,000 members.

“It’s a step in the right direction. I don’t complete it’s going to completely alleviate people’s desires.”

But Nelson says now that the changes have been made teachers should be able to reenroll in various options under the plan. She also says the association hopes there will be more provider choices in the future, because currently Blue Cross Blue Shield of Georgia is the sole provider.

Governor Deal says the changes will address many of the concerns. He says two things are responsible for the outcry by teachers and other state employees.

“A new contract being let by the state that adopted a different model that had been previously in place in terms of choices and the convergence of the extra costs associated with the Affordable Care Act.”

But Timothy Sweeney, with the Georgia Budget and Policy Institute, said last week “Georgia’s decisions to offer plans from just one insurance carrier and to offer only high-deductible plans at that, were not forced upon it by decisions in Washington.”

Changes in the plan will be instituted on March 14 but will be retroactive to January 1. The board will use $116 million dollars from State Health Benefit Plan budget reserves to cover changes to the plan.