Report Title:
Public Employees Health Fund; Medicare B Premium
Description:
Discontinues health fund reimbursements for Medicare B premiums to all public employees and their spouses who retire on or after 07/01/2001.
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HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES |
H.B. NO. |
1062 |
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TWENTY-FIRST LEGISLATURE, 2001 |
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STATE OF HAWAII |
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A BILL FOR AN ACT
relating to the public employees health fund.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF HAWAII:
SECTION 1. The legislature finds that the public employees health fund is currently required to reimburse a retired public employee and spouse while the retired employee is living, the amounts the retired employee and spouse pay for voluntary Medicare B insurance premiums. The auditor has estimated in its 1999 Actuarial Study and Operational Audit of the Hawaii Public Employees Health Fund that the State and counties' unfunded employer liability for only the Medicare B premium for 2013 will range from low-, intermediate-, and high-trend scenarios of $1.1, $1.5, and $3.6 billion, respectively.
It is the purpose of this Act to take a fiscally prudent stand by eliminating the reimbursements made by the State and the counties for Medicare part B premiums paid by of public employees who retire on or after July 1, 2001, and their spouses.
SECTION 2. Section 87-27, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended to read as follows:
"§87-27 Supplemental plan to federal Medicare. Any other provision of this chapter notwithstanding, the board of trustees shall establish[, effective July 1, 1966,] a health benefits plan which takes into account benefits available to an employee-beneficiary and spouse under the federal Medicare plan, subject to the following conditions:
(1) There shall be no duplication of benefits payable under federal Medicare but the plan so established by the board shall be supplemental to the federal Medicare plan;
(2) The board shall pay contributions for voluntary medical insurance coverage under federal Medicare only to employee-beneficiaries who retire on or before June 30, 2001, and their dependent-beneficiaries and shall not pay any such contributions for any employee-beneficiary who retires on or after July 1, 2001, and their dependent-beneficiaries. The [contribution] fund shall pay contributions for voluntary medical insurance coverage under federal Medicare [may be paid by the fund, in such manner as the board shall specify,] in the case of an employee-beneficiary who is a retired employee, and spouse while the employee-beneficiary is living, including members of the old pension system and after death the employee-beneficiary's spouse provided the spouse qualifies as an employee-beneficiary; provided that the counties, through their respective departments of finance, shall reimburse the fund for any contributions made for county employee- beneficiaries under this paragraph;
(3) The benefits available under the plan, when taken together with the benefits available under the federal Medicare plan, as nearly as is possible, shall approximate the benefits available under the plans set forth in section 87-22. If, for any reason, a situation develops where the benefits available under the supplemental plan and the federal Medicare plan substantially differ from those that would otherwise be available, the board may correct this inequity to assure substantial equality of benefits;
(4) Notwithstanding any other law to the contrary, all employee-beneficiaries or dependent-beneficiaries who are eligible to enroll in the federal Medicare Part B medical insurance plan shall enroll in that federal plan as a requirement to receive the contributions and to participate in the employee benefit plans described in this chapter. This paragraph shall pertain to retired employees and their spouses and the surviving spouses of deceased retirees and employees killed in the performance of duty; and
(5) The board of trustees shall determine which employee-beneficiaries and dependent-beneficiaries, who are not enrolled in the federal Medicare Part B medical insurance plan, may participate in such other plans as are set forth in section 87-22."
SECTION 3. Statutory material to be repealed is bracketed and stricken. New statutory material is underscored.
SECTION 4. This Act shall take effect on July 1, 2001.
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INTRODUCED BY: |
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