State health insurance rates continue double-digit increases

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- Health insurance rates will be rising by an average of 19 percent next year for most state workers, marking the third year of double-digit rate increases for employees whose salaries have remained frozen the past two years.

More than 100 state employees affiliated with unions protested Thursday at the headquarters of the Missouri Consolidated Health Care Plan, the quasi-governmental group that oversees health insurance for about 48,000 state employees.

Standing in the rain, they chanted, "Raise our salaries -- not health care," then went inside to a meeting of the health plan's board of trustees, where state employees described the personal struggles they could face because of higher insurance rates.

A majority of protesters -- most of whom were mental health or probation and parole workers -- raised their hands when one presenter asked how many of them already work two jobs.

Will Sifford, 36, said he might have to find a third job to keep pace with a $281 monthly increase in his insurance plan, or change plans to one that provides lesser coverage for his family of five.

"We don't live very frivolously, we don't go out a lot, we stay home," said Sifford, a probation and parole officer in St. Louis.

But to keep his current health insurance plan, "we're going to have to give up a lot of things."

While employee insurance rates are going up, the percentage of their total premiums paid by the state could drop in 2003 to as low as 69 percent, instead of the current 75 percent, said Ron Meyer, executive director of the Missouri Consolidated Health Care Plan.

The cost to employees could have been even more, Meyer said, if the organization had not worked to keep premiums in check by raising the patient's share of co-payments for each doctor or hospital visit.

"We continue to do the best we can for them, because we certainly understand their argument and their concern," Meyer said.

Later Thursday at the Capitol, Gov. Bob Holden told reporters that the state cannot afford to pay any more toward employee health insurance. In fiscal 2003, the state is contributing $259 million toward the health care plan.

"We've got a very tight budget. We have to live within our means," Holden said. "Right now, I don't see how much more we can do with the circumstances we have."

The 19 percent increase for state employees next year is on top of a 25 percent increase in 2002 and a 40 percent increase the year before.

Health insurance rates also have been rising rapidly in the private sector during the past few years.

The average annual premium nationwide is $3,060 for single coverage and $7,954 for family coverage, according to a report released earlier this month by the Kaiser Family Foundation and the Health Research and Educational Trust. Their annual survey of 3,262 randomly selected public and private firms was conducted from January to May.

Doris Branham, 50, a security aid at the Fulton State Hospital, said state health insurance for herself and her husband could rise between $164 and $200 a month next year, depending on the plan. That increase comes even though Branham is dropping her two adult children from the plan.

Paying more for health insurance means she will spend less elsewhere.

"It cuts down on entertainment, movies, going out," she said. "By the time we get done paying the necessary bills, you have just enough if you want to feed your family."

Branham is a member of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, which organized Thursday's protest along with the Service Employees International Union, which represents Sifford and other probation and parole employees.

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On the Net:

Missouri Consolidated Health Care Plan: http://www.mchcp.org