State health plan could be put out for bid

There are usually a few surprises the last week of the Utah Legislature, and a big one hit Monday.

Under a bill released in the afternoon, the state's employee health-care insurance firm, Public Employees Health Plan, would no longer have an exclusive right to provide insurance for the 20,000 or so state and higher education workers but would have to bid for the work. The bill did not have a committee hearing and was moved to the top of the House calendar, severely restricting the opportunity for public comment on the bill.

If passed, state and college workers could get a hit two ways based on what plan the state chooses for its employees: possible layoffs and salary cuts next fiscal year because of budget shortfalls, and cuts in health-care benefits, as well.

Health care's rising costs are crippling state and local governments and businesses alike.

And Utah legislative bosses are looking at ways of providing better, affordable health-care coverage not only to Utah's uninsured but now apparently for state workers as well.

House Majority Whip Brad Dee, R-Washington Terrace, sponsor of the HB451, told the Deseret News: "I'm not backing down."

Dee and other leaders got HB451 through the whole House process — which usually takes weeks — in about three hours.

Dee said PEHP refuses to negotiate with the Legislature over the $17.3 million it will cost to provide the same health-care benefits to state employees for fiscal 2010, which starts July 1.

To counter that, leaders didn't put that $17.3 million in the budget and got HB451 passed in an afternoon.

"We were completely blindsided by this," Audry Wood, head of the Utah Public Employees Association, the union that represents most rank-and-file state workers, said Monday afternoon. "We found out about this at noon" on Monday.

"State employees are facing (layoffs), they are facing furloughs" when the new fiscal year starts July 1, she said. "And PEHP offers an excellent plan now. We are really concerned about employee health insurance — this could be a real double-whammy."

Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. didn't know about HB451 either, said his spokeswoman, Lisa Roskelley. "We found out about it today. We'll have to review it," Roskelley said.

PEHPs attorney, Dan Anderson, said that there was a miscommunication between Dee and plan executives. "We would never thumb our nose at the Legislature."

By law, PEHP must give the Legislature what it would cost to maintain employee benefits, and that amount is $17.3 million for next year. "We always want input from the Legislature. And Rep. Dee felt like he had no voice in the process. Were trying to smooth that over."

"We are the client," Dee said. "And we want our insurance company to treat us like a client. So we will, through an RFP, detail what kind of insurance we want and let them (or anyone else) bid on it."

E-mail: bbjr@desnews.com