Gov. Mike Beebe signed into law Monday a package of bills passed by the Legislature during last week’s special session aimed at bailing out the health-insurance program for state public-school employees.
The new laws appropriate $43 million in state surplus funds to subsidize the program in 2014 and establish a legislative task force to find a long-term fix.
The insurance bills sailed through the House and Senate late last week during a special session that wrapped up shortly after midnight Saturday. If the governor had not called the special session, insurance premiums for public-school employees in the program would have increased by about 50 percent beginning Jan. 1. Now insurance premiums will increase by 10 percent in 2014.
Beebe, who signed the bills in his office without a ceremony, said it was now up to the task force to recommend changes to the Legislature.
“I think you are going to have to wait until we see what the task force comes up with in terms of systemic changes. Before we know whether or not we’ll be able to get increased participants, I think you’ll have to see what the plans end up being and what competitive aspects of those plans are,” Beebe said.
Act 3 of the special session creates a 12-member legislative task force to study the health insurance program and recommend changes by June 2014. A final report will be due June 30, 2015.
The chairmen of the Senate and House Education committees, and the House and Senate Insurance and Commerce committees will serve on the task force or can appoint a designee.
House Speaker Davy Carter, R-Cabot, appointed Reps. George McGill of Fort Smith, Harold Copenhaver of Jonesboro, Bill Gossage of Ozark, and Allen Kerr of Little Rock to the task force. McGill, Copenhaver and Kerr have experience working in the insurance industry, while Gossage has worked in education and administration, Carter said.
“I’m confident all those appointed will use their expertise to bring real solutions to the table by next year,” Carter said in a statement.
Senate President Pro Tempore Michael Lamoureux, R-Russellville, said he’s asked Sens. Linda Chesterfield of Little Rock, Cecile Bledsoe of Rogers, David Sanders of Little Rock, and Eddie Cheatham of Crossett to serve on the task force.
Bob Alexander, the director of the state’s Employee Benefits Division, said it was too early to say what the longterm solution might be for the program, which covers 47,000 teachers, janitors and other public-school employees and their families.
“I can’t assume anything right now until they get the task force up and running,” Alexander said.
But Alexander said the two biggest factors that affect the program are enrollment and contributions by the school districts. As claims increase each year, they are offset by more people paying into the program or by increased contributions from the districts, he said.
School districts are forecast to contribute $96 million to the program this year, with state contributions of $58 million, along with the $131 million in premiums state employees will pay.
Two of the bills signed by Beebe are aimed at shifting funds from other educational programs to the insurance plan.
Act 1 of the special session, sponsored by Sen. Jason Rapert, R-Bigelow, would shift about $16.3 million starting in fiscal 2015 from general facilities funding and supplemental millage incentive funding to the insurance program.
Act 2, sponsored by Sen. Jonathan Dismang, R-Searcy, reduces professional-development funding for the districts, totaling about $10 million a year starting in the 2014-15 school year, so the money can be applied to the program.
Mike Mertens, the assistant executive director of the Arkansas Association of Educational Administrators, said the task force will have to take steps to increase enrollment, particularly of younger people, in the program, which he said was “easier said than done.”
The employee benefits division has said about 72,000 public school employees are eligible to participate in the program.
“The task force has a daunting task, but what they need to come up with is an insurance program that has attractive enough premiums and attractive enough benefits” to get young people to sign up, Mertens said.
Brenda Robinson, the president of the Arkansas Education Association, said she expects the task force to look at the long-term effects of any proposal for the future of the program, including using money from other sources. Robinson said whatever solution the task force chooses, premiums should remain affordable.
“Even with the 10 percent [increase], some people are saying [it’s] a little bit too high,” Robinson said.
In other business, the governor also signed into law Act 4 of the First Extraordinary Session of 2013, which repealed a state law easing water-quality standards.
Act 954 of 2013, by Rep. Andy Davis, R-Little Rock, changed the way the state Department of Environmental Quality measured minerals in the water and removed the default drinking-water designation for Arkansas waterways. Act 954 would’ve prevented officials from developing or implementing water quality standards on streams, lakes or reservoirs in some cases.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said that Act 954 violated the national Clean Water Act and threatened to “federalize” the water permitting process if the state law remained in place. As a result, lawmakers repealed the law.
Information for this article was contributed by Michael R. Wickline of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
Front Section, Pages 1 on 10/22/2013