On March 3, 2020, Senator Fillmore, R-South Jordan, proposed SCR 10 – Concurrent Resolution on State Employee Benefits and Providing a Refund from the State Health Insurance Pool. He explained to the members of the Senate Revenue and Taxation Committee that the resolution has two parts.
Part 1: reimburses excess funds held in in the state health insurance pool.
The resolution requests returning the surplus funds generated by the Public Employee Health Plan to be distributed to State employers and employees. The fund has exceeded the recommended reserve amount, making it possible to return 92% of the excess funds to employers, and 8% to employees.
Part 2: increases the salaries of employees who choose not to receive PEHP benefits.
SCR 10 also creates another benefit option to provide more flexibility in how employees choose to be compensated. Currently, employees have the option of ‘benefits’ or ‘no benefits’ from the total health benefit package. This resolution creates an option for employees to receive a salary increase in lieu of PEHP coverage if they already have health insurance coverage, i.e. from their partner or a different employer. In this option, the employee receives $2,000 for single coverage or $4,000 for family coverage each fiscal year; dispersed in equal payments each payroll period that year.
UPEA will continue tracking this bill as it moves through the legislative process.