Bill aims to change state retiree benefits

Mar 10, 2010 — The Decatur Daily

M.J. Ellington

Mar. 10, 2010 (McClatchy-Tribune Regional News delivered by Newstex) -- MONTGOMERY -- In the future, the state may require employees to work more years to qualify for employee health insurance benefits as retirees.

In addition, the state could end the practice of accepting years of service with a local government as time served toward state retirement health insurance benefits.

HB 649 by Rep. Jamie Ison, R-Mobile, sets out minimum lengths of time state employees must serve to qualify for state retirement benefits, including health insurance coverage.

A public hearing on the bill is set for the House Government Appropriations Committee on Wednesday.

Ison said the goal of the bill is to contain state costs for employee and retiree benefits and to help the state continue offering quality health insurance benefits to retirees.

It does so by limiting the amount the state would pay toward the costs of health insurance premiums and puts restrictions on who can qualify for the benefits.

The restrictions limit retiree health benefits to employees with 10 or more years of state services, set limits on the length of time the state will pay for disability health benefits for employees who retire on disability, and establish a sliding scale of payment based on years of employment.

The minimum years of service requirements would not apply to state employees who retire from the state before Sept. 30 or to employees who retire because of disability before July 1.

The bill would also end the practice of employees who work most of their careers at local governments later transferring to the state for a short time to qua-lify for state health insurance.

"The bill is designed to stop dumping of employees from local government into our system with little time served as state employees," said William Ashmore, director of the State Employees Insurance Board.

"In the future, they would have to have at least 10 years' service with the state to qualify for state retiree health benefits," he said. The bill would still allow public education employees who retire from that system and come to the state to count years of service in that system.

Ashmore said transferring into state jobs for a short time to qualify for the health benefits is common, but needs to stop. "They need to go back and get those benefits from their former employer when they retire," he said.

Ison said employees who worked for local governments can qualify for state retiree health insurance benefits with as little as one year as state employees. She said the cost to the state in such instances is especially high for retirees who are too young to qualify for Medi-care health benefits.

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