House isn't going along with Scott on health care goal

Gov. Rick Scott tried again to make all state employees pay the same amount for health insurance during the 2013 legislative session, part of his campaign pledge to bring state health insurance costs "in line” with the national average.

But he ended the session in the same boat as the previous two. He proposed all state workers pay $50 for individual coverage or $180 for family coverage, saving the state about $43.4 million.

The Legislature said nah.

We'll elaborate.

Rank-and-file employees pay $50 a month for individual coverage or $180 a month for family coverage. The state kicks in about $500 and $1,000, respectively.

The state's pool of 24,500 high-ranking employees, legislators and their aides get a much better deal. They pay $8.34 for individual coverage or $30 for family. The state's share is $540 and $1,200.

A May 2013 Tampa Bay Times story highlighted the awkward juxtaposition of House members accepting cheap, taxpayer-subsidized insurance for themselves while denying an expansion of Medicaid coverage to 1 million low-income Floridians. The House pushed a state-funded alternative that would have charged low-income parents and disabled adults a $25 premium for basic coverage.

A year earlier in the upper chamber, members of the Florida Senate volunteered to pay the $30 or $180 premiums for health insurance that most state workers pay.

"There's no reason that some people that work in state government should pay less than others,” Scott said this year.

The dichotomy may not last. In a statement to the Times, Weatherford said, "We are aware of the differences in what House members pay compared to other state employees for health insurance and are looking forward to addressing it next session."

How does this compare to the national average for employer-sponsored insurance plans? It's lower.

In 2012, the average annual employee contribution for individual insurance was $951, with the employer kicking in $4,664, according to a national employer survey by the Kaiser Family Foundation. The worker's premium is about $80 a month, or 10 times what high-ranking workers and House members pay.

The 2012 average annual employee contribution for family coverage was $4,316, with the employer's share being $11,429, according to Kaiser. Per month, that's about $360 for a worker, or 12 times what House members and some other workers pay.

We wondered if Florida is near the national average when compared to other public employers.

On average, public employers charged employees $698 a year ($58/month) for individual coverage and $3,368 ($280/month) for health insurance, according to a Kaiser analysis of employer-sponsored health insurance.

So for most rank-and-file state employees, their share of health insurance premiums isn't too far below the national average of public employers. But the class of employees who pay far less for insurance trail the national average by a lot.

Scott isn't having much luck getting the Legislature to equalize health insurance costs for all workers. But it's not all the Legislature's fault. We found no evidence Scott lobbied or pressured lawmakers to make the change, and it wasn't among his two legislative priorities for 2013.

As such, we rate this promise Stalled.