SC Budget Board Raises State Health Care Premiums

Public employees in South Carolina will pay 4.5 percent more for their health insurance next year, after the state Budget and Control Board voted Tuesday to raise premiums for the state health plan.

The plan covers nearly 410,000 public employees and their families and state retirees and their families. Local teachers are also part of the plan, along with city and county workers who choose to be part of it.

Retired state Department of Natural Resources worker Diane Kennedy said after the vote, "I've been retired for three years and we hadn't gotten a cost-of-living increase on our retirement. We finally got one at 1.5 percent. Now they want to raise our health insurance 4.5 percent. There goes our little profit so we're in the hole. We're doing worse than we were doing."

Sam Griswold, past president of the State Retirees Association, says there was no reason for the increase. "If you had zero increase in the employee contribution, you would have still more than 45 days of reserves in the program, which is what is required by law and what, in the past, has been only what has been required by the Budget and Control Board. We have never increased rates unnecessarily. This is the first time. It's unprecedented in state government."

But board members said the move was needed to make sure the system is sound and has the money required to meet employees' health care needs. The state, meaning all taxpayers, will also increase its share of the health insurance premiums by 4.5 percent.

When asked what she would say to employees and retirees upset about the increase, Gov. Nikki Haley said, "We said at the beginning of this year when I took office that this year was going to hurt. And I think we've seen that. What we've tried to do is limit the amount of pain that we've had to feel."

The premium increase varies depending on several factors. You can see a chart laying out the increases here.

A non-smoker in the high-deductible plan, with coverage for himself only, will see his premiums go up only 42 cents a month. But an employee and spouse, non-smokers, in the standard plan will pay $15.86 more a month. The average increase will be $6.82 a month.

But the board also approved two things that will save taxpayers money.

It approved the Department of Revenue's moving out of its office space in the Columbia Mills building and consolidating all its employees in another office building where it already leases space. Savings on rent and efficiency by having all employees in the same place will save taxpayers more than $4.2 million over ten years.

After the Department of Revenue moves out, the state Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation will move into the vacant space, which means LLR will be moving out of the private office building it leases now, saving even more money.

The board also approved the Commission on Higher Education's move to another office building with lower rent, which will save $963,000 over nearly nine years.