Committee debates PERS health-plan rewrite; proposed $50 option fails, staff to draft legal language for state contribution

The Senate Human Services Committee debated Senate Bill 2160, a proposal to convert state employee health coverage from the current grandfathered plan to a non-grandfathered design (or to provide a third option), and rejected an amendment that would have created a $50-per-month third option plus a total rewards study. Committee members and PERS staff discussed implementation details, bidding practices and the statutory language that would be required to permit charging state employees a share of premiums.

Rebecca Fricke, executive director of the Public Employees Retirement System (PERS), told the committee that vendors already price both current (grandfathered) plan designs and non-grandfathered alternatives when the state goes out to bid, and that whatever the Legislature decides would become the plan design in the next bidding cycle (scheduled for 2026).

Fricke said, “When we go out to bid…we ask for the current plan design and what the cost would be for that. We also ask for if we were to move to non grandfathered for the state, what…