House Bill 1269
House Bill 1269 by Rep. Myra Crownover has been scheduled for debate in the House for Thursday, May 3. HB 1269 would establish an option at ERS for a high deductible health plan (HDHP) coupled with a Health Savings Account (HSA). It is extremely important that all state employees and retirees contact their local State Representatives and ask them to vote against HB 1269 when it is considered in the House on Thursday and Friday. Please forward this information to co-workers and other state employees. If you need help identifying your local State Representatives please visit http://www.fyi.legis.state.tx.us/.
TPEA, along with every other state employee group, opposes HB 1269. HB 1269 will not save the state money or lower costs at ERS, as the Fiscal Note prepared by the LBB confirms. But proponents of this legislation have tried to portray it as an innocuous health care option. The reality is an optional HSA will siphon younger, healthier and lower cost participants out of the state’s traditional health insurance plan, sending the traditional plan into a downward spiral as average costs rise, and the pool of participants remaining in the plan becomes, on average, older, less healthy and higher cost. This process is known as adverse selection.
The features of a high deductible health plan with an associated HSA are not a good fit for the state employee population. Under federal law, Individual employees would have an annual medical deductible of least $1050, while family deductibles would be at least $2,100, but deductibles could be much higher depending on the plan design. Given the low salaries of the vast majority of state employees, this will not be an attractive option for many employees or their families. The primary attraction of an HSA is the tax benefit of the tax-free HSA contributions, but again this is not a good fit with the state employee population since only 12 percent of state employees earn over $50,000 annually.
Please contact your local State Representatives and ask them to oppose HB 1269. State employees and retirees uniformly oppose this legislation. It does not save money and it will adversely affect our traditional health insurance plan.
For additional information on HB 1269 visit http://www.tpea.org/opposeHB1269.html