State employees would get more representation on the Missouri Consolidated Health Care Plan's (MCHCP) Board of Trustees, if lawmakers this year approve a change sponsored by Rep. Mike Bernskoetter, R-Jefferson City.
The bill "would (add) two active state employees to the board and one retired member - which is currently what is on the MOSERS Board," Bernskoetter told members of the House General Laws Committee on Tuesday night.
"It would reduce the governor's appointments from six to three, and the size of the board would stay the same."
An information sheet given to the committee's members by ARMSE - the association of Active and Retired Missouri State Employees - noted: "Currently the governor has six board appointments to the MCHCP board.
"(State law) specifies that three of those appointments must be members of the plan.
"However, historically, governors have appointed the state Budget director and other department directors or high-level staff to fill those slots," which gives the governor's administration more clout "instead of the interests of state employees or retired employees."
Mark Reading - a now-retired 31-year state veteran who spent 23 of those years working in the Office of Administration's Budget and Planning division - is ARMSE's president.
"There's a lot of things that are going on in health care - especially with the Consolidated board," he testified, "a lot of big changes and rate increases and other things that are facing the board and state employees."
ARMSE's information sheet given to the committee members noted: "Providing representation on the MCHCP Board will allow active and retired employees some input into health care decisions.
"Big changes are coming in the next several years to their health care."
Although not mentioned in Tuesday's committee testimony, ARMSE Executive Director Sue Cox - a retired Transportation Department employee - told the News Tribune in an email last week: "We are alarmed by the fact that the MCHCP board is considering raising (health care) costs for state employees and retirees in that system, extremely higher and much beyond what they would receive as a pay raise" in the state budget currently working its way through the Legislature.
The Senate's Appropriations Committee this week is working on the House-passed bill that generally includes a $500-per-year raise for state employees making less than $50,000 a year.
Cox said: "The health care costs would be much more than the pay raise, and the plan members will pay taxes on the pay increase. They are losing out all the way around."
The fact sheet also noted, last year, "substantial rate hikes were applied to retirees while active rates remained unchanged. However, at the (too low) funding levels recommended in (the Fiscal Year) 2019 (budget), both active and retired employees will face substantial health care cost increases."
Until 1994, the state employees' health plan was part of the Missouri State Employees Retirement System (MOSERS).
That changed, Reading said, because: "Health care was just getting more complicated, with Medicaid and other things, and the MOSERS Board decided that they needed to focus on retirement issues.
"And they thought that, with a new board and new, dedicated staff, that they would be better able to get good prices and just manage it better."
In addition to giving the state employees more of a say in their health care, Reading said the proposed change could help the MCHCP board have a quorum at its meetings.
"Last year, when you had a new administration come in, there were a lot of appointed members by the governor and it took time - so, Consolidated had to cancel several board meetings for lack of a quorum," Reading testified.
"Even last month, at the MOSERS meeting, for the first 45 minutes or an hour, (if not) for the active and retired members, they wouldn't have had a quorum to even get started."
With a little more than four weeks left in the 2018 session, Bernskoetter said after Tuesday's hearing: "We are late in the session, so it makes it a little more difficult, but if we can't get the bill across the finish line, maybe we can amend it onto something else and do it that way."
In the past, Bernskoetter and other Mid-Missouri lawmakers have said it often can be hard to get their colleagues to support bills involving state employees.
Bernskoetter said: "If nothing else - most of the state representatives and senators would be under the health care plan - and I would think they would think it would be a good idea to have some employees or retired employees on the board."