DES MOINES – Thanks to an investigation by the Des Moines Register that showed some Iowa lawmakers were getting health care on the cheap, those elected individuals will be paying closer to their fair share.
Senate File 230 will reduce General Fund expenditures by an estimated $235,000 in FY 2018 and $470,000 annually beginning with FY 2019. The payments by the members and full-time employees of the General Assembly for their health care insurance coverage will increase by a like amount.
This bill specifies that all members and full-time employees of the General Assembly (Participants) can only select from the State group health insurance plans offered to noncontract employees of the Executive Branch, excluding those offered specifically to employees of the Board of Regents. Payment amounts for State group health insurance are required to be on the same basis as that of the specified noncontract employees.
A Des Moines Register investigation published in February uncovered the loophole that some legislators were taking advantage of.
“Lawmakers are reaping the benefits of nonunion plans but paying the much cheaper union employee price,” the Register uncovered.
DATABASE: Here’s what lawmakers pay for health insurance
The act was approved by the General Assembly on April 4, 2017, and signed by the Governor on April 12, 2017.
I am surprised that the large corporations these elected officials actually work for do not pay their health insurance – small potatoes compared to the payoffs their gifted from them. Small businesses are just fooling themselves thinking their getting a fair shake from a rigged system.
And yet they will still pay less than 20% of the total cost of their insurance. If those Republicans are as concerned about the taxpayer as they often say, they should pay at least 50%.
Looks like the majority of them were on the dole. If the US house and senate is getting the same sweetheart deal, it’s no wonder they don’t care about repealing Obamacare. Do you think they were not aware of it???