Legislature still refuses to raise worker contributions

When Rick Scott ran for governor he promised to bring state employee health insurance costs and mandates in line with the U.S. average.

In four years, Scott has made some progress. But not enough.

Scott has proposed that all state workers pay the same amount for health care coverage: $50 for individual coverage or $180 for family coverage. But there remain 22,700 employees including certain managers and the governor who get a much better deal: $8.34 for individual coverage or $30 for family coverage. That's because the Legislature has not agreed to increases for them.

For 2013, the Kaiser Family Foundation reported the average annual worker contribution for premiums for an individual in the United States was $999 while employers kicked in $4,885. Monthly that would break down to $83 -- or about 10 times more than what those high-ranking government workers contribute in Florida. (The national average for families is also much higher than those workers in the governor's office.)

Florida does come closer to paying state workers the average when compared to state employees nationally.

Nationally, on average states require employees to pay 16 percent of their health insurance costs while Florida public workers pay 13 percent, according to The State Health Care Spending Project based on 2013 data. The study Pew Charitable Trusts and the MacArthur Foundation found that in Florida the average premium for state workers is $958, which is $5 less than the national average. (The study doesn't contain similar data for the start of Scott's tenure, so we can't say if this comparison changed during his leadership.)

If re-elected, Scott plans to propose the same idea for uniform health care payments next year. He gets credit for trying, but the Scott-O-Meter rates outcomes, not intentions. We rate this Promise Broken.