MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Thirty people attended the first public hearing on Monday night about increases to PEIA costs.
The PEIA Finance Board is proposing 2% aggregate premium increases for state employees and employers for the coming year. The proposal includes no changes to the family tier spousal surcharge, 1% benefit modifications, and an employer administrative fee increase of $2.50. PEIA is proposing going ahead with a standard that participating non-state employers must have 50% of their employees enrolled in a PEIA health plan by next June 30 to participate.
Executive Director Brent Wolfingbarger said the plan earned $187 million in investment gains to stabilize the plan for the coming year.
“We had a five-year plan in place, and we hit all of those targets,” Wolfingbarger said. “So, why not use some of the investment income that we did not expect to help out the retirees?”
Co-president of Education West Virginia Dale Lee said no one wants to see an increase, but this bump in cost is far lower than the national average increase.
“I’m very pleased this plan beats the projections that there is only a two percent premium increase,” Lee said. “Which is far less than the national average of nine to eleven percent.”
Non-state agencies, the local governments that participate in PEIA, got hit a little harder. Non-state fund premiums would rise 4% for most plans and 24% for the Gold high-deductible plan, alongside 2% benefit modifications.
“The non-state Plan C, or the Gold High Deductible, is very underwater,” Wolfingbarger said. “That’s why we proposed higher premium increases for that because that’s where we are losing the money.”
Retiree Tom Rise was a state employee for 28 years and said the last seven years of increases and plan changes have been very frustrating. He’s not happy that state lawmakers continue to promise to fix the plan year after year and added that more could be done by the governor.
“It has to actually come from the top,” Rise said. “It has to come from the governor’s office, and he has to make that recommendation, and I don’t see Governor Morrissey ever making that recommendation for public employees.”
The plan increase is a concern for Heather Deluca-Nestor, an 8th grade teacher at South Middle School with more than 25 years of experience. She said as PEIA has become more expensive, some have moved to other opportunities, putting constant pressure on staffing levels.
“We’re continuing to lose teachers; we’re continuing to lose resources,” Deluca-Nestor said. “I know that it is less than private insurance, but we don’t get raises. We don’t have anything to offset the costs.”
The following is a schedule of remaining meetings:
- Nov. 10 at the Beckley-Raleigh Convention Center, 200 Armory Drive, Beckley
- Nov. 12, virtual meeting via Meeting Link: meet.google.com/ekx-vfac-pfy or phone: 1-941-800-3158 PIN: 432 061 428#
- Nov. 16 at the Shepherdstown Shepherd University — Student Center Storer Ballroom, 210 North King Street, Shepherdstown
- Nov. 17 at the state Capitol Complex — Building 3 1900 Kanawha Blvd. E. Charleston
- Nov. 19 at the River City Restaurant, 1400 Main Street — First Floor, Wheeling