PEIA Task Force still aims to shape insurance plan by fall deadline

CHARLESTON, W.Va. — As summer winds down, the PEIA Task Force is still aiming to shape insurance for West Virginia state employees.

The full task force met Thursday morning and accepted a report from a subcommittee responsible for assessing public opinion about what the insurance plan should be.

MORE: Read the PEIA public outreach report.

But two more subcommittees still have a lot of work ahead.

The coverage and plan subcommittee plans to meet next Thursday. And the cost and revenue subcommittee meeting is 2 p.m. Friday.

Mike Hall, the chief of staff for the Justice administration, said it’s likely those two committees can do their work concurrently or in cooperation.

Members of the full task force have been looking toward an Oct. 15 date to provide recommendations.

The Governor’s Office needs to provide a revenue overview to the separate PEIA Finance Board, which then produces a plan for the next fiscal year to take out to a series of public comment hearings each fall.

“I’ve never been one to easily predict how much time things are going to take to happen,” Hall said before the committee.

“We’re just making sure the final product is not rushed, but at the same time not delayed.”

The chairman of the cost and revenue subcommittee is Joe Letnaunchyn, president and chief executive of the West Virginia Hospital Association.

He said the big questions before that group will be, “What are the cost components? What are the revenue components? What are the costs of running the program?

“We need to know where we are and where we’re going before we make other recommendations.”

The PEIA Task Force was established by Gov. Jim Justice as an outcome of the teachers’ strike from last winter. It was meant to be a way to address concerns about rising out-of-pocket costs.

The Task Force work has included 21 public hearings around the state.

“One of the primary concerns of participants is affordability,” according to the summary produced by the Task Force. “They expressed concern over cost of premiums, cost of deductibles, cost of copays and cost of prescriptions.”

PEIA officials have estimated it will require an additional $50 million year over year to keep up with rising costs of health insurance.

That’s calculated by rounding off the overall cost of PEIA at $1 billion and extrapolating an estimated annual cost increase of 5 percent for healthcare.

“Participants acknowledged the rising cost of healthcare as a national issue but believe as
their state representatives, legislators should be supporting an employee’s right to affordable
healthcare,” according to the PEIA Task Force report.

“They also noted the reduction in state revenue due to corporate tax breaks and
unwillingness of the legislature to implement reasonable severance tax on the state’s natural
resources.”

Funding sources suggested include severance tax on natural gas, sugary drink/soda tax,
tobacco tax, food tax, corporate tax, sports betting revenue, ATV ownership tax, beer and
cigarettes tax, legalize cannabis and tax usage, taxes on natural gas, timber, and coal, managed
timberland tax increase, taxes on corporations and business, corporate net income tax, business
and franchise tax, raise taxes on “out-of-state” property owners, additional per-pill fee for opioid
prescriptions, and “surcharge tax on high income people”.

“Regardless of the revenue source, it was also clear that an increase in revenue is needed and should not fall on the backs of the citizens of West Virginia,” according to the PEIA Task Force summary.

Part of the report accepted by the task force on Thursday included the results of 1078 survey responses.

That showed that 48.5 percent of those who responded — 523 people — said cost is the top issue with PEIA.

To deal with that, 47.2 percent — 512 respondents — said a funding source would be a fix.

The funding source, according to a separate question, should be a tax, according to 47.8 percent of those surveyed (518 respondents).

The overwhelming target to increase taxes was natural gas, according to 44.9 percent of respondents (44.9 percent.)

Another 11.3 percent (86) proposed legalizing and taxing marijuana.

There was not a lot of apparent support for healthy lifestyle programs meant to improve wellness and decrease insurance costs.

In a question about participation in health programs, 17.1 percent (185 people) said there are none they would like to take part in. Another 13.3 percent (144) said the question does not apply to them.

Free gym membership sounded attractive to 12.1 percent (131).

On a question about incentives to participate in a wellness program, 32.5 percent liked the idea of reduced insurance cost.

And 22.3 percent (241), said there is no incentive to participate in a wellness program.

That indifference was in contrast to some of the statements made during public hearings all over the state for the PEIA Task Force.

“In fact, the call for additional preventative programs accessible to rural areas of West
Virginia was expressed on numerous occasions,” according to the report.

“Specifically, a large percentage of speakers talked about the need to continue preventive care programs such as the Face-to-Face Diabetes Program, tobacco cessation programs, and overall wellness programs.





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