STATE'S HEALTH CARE PLAN $8 BILLION IN DEBT

(12/22/2006)

The Public Employees Insurance Agency is working on a plan for confronting a looming liability of eight billion dollars. PEIA's finance board has voted to look at tapping into the Medicare Advantage program. The program offers generous reimbursement rates that should help PEIA build up a reserve fund. It would also cover retirees who are on Medicare. For those enrollees, the board also voted to reduce premiums while increasing out-of-pocket expenses. The recent series of public hearings convinced the finance board to cap those expenses at $500 dollars per person per year. But moving to Medicare Advantage will mean the loss of PEIA's supplemental coverage. Judy Hale, president of the American Federation of Teachers in West Virginia, says that is not agreeable.

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