{"id":2217218,"date":"2024-04-10T08:32:02","date_gmt":"2024-04-10T12:32:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/illinois-taxpayer-costs-for-state-workers-cadillac-health-plans-increase-16\/"},"modified":"2024-04-10T08:36:17","modified_gmt":"2024-04-10T12:36:17","slug":"illinois-taxpayer-costs-for-state-workers-cadillac-health-plans-increase-16","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/illinois-taxpayer-costs-for-state-workers-cadillac-health-plans-increase-16\/","title":{"rendered":"Illinois taxpayers&#8217; expenses for state employees&#8217; premium health plans rise by 16%"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">24<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fillinois-taxpayer-costs-for-state-workers-cadillac-health-plans-increase-16%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2217218&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>Illinois taxpayers are facing increased expenses to fund <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/government-unions-have-been-stealing-money-for-years-now-scotus-has-the-chance-to-intervene\/\" title=\"Government Unions Have Been Stealing Money For Years \u2014 Now, SCOTUS Has The Chance To Intervene\">state employees<\/a>&#8216; \u2062&#8221;Cadillac&#8221; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/american-booksellers-association-implements-new-oversight-to-prevent-accidentally-promoting-authors-like-candace-owens\/\" title=\"American Booksellers Association Implements New \u2018Oversight\u2019 To Prevent Accidentally Promoting Authors Like Candace Owens\">health insurance coverage<\/a>, with a proposal for over $6.9 billion in the 2025 budget plan\u2014an increase of\u200c 21% from the previous year. The higher \u200dcosts are\u2064 attributed to inflation, leading to concerns\u2063 raised by State Sen. Dave Syverson regarding the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/china-upenn-cash-infusion-as-biden-think-tank-opened-was-startling-ex-official\/\" title=\"Former official finds China's financial support for UPenn's Biden think tank 'surprising'.\">significant rise compared<\/a> to other states. Illinois taxpayers\u2063 are grappling with rising costs to\u2062 support state \u200cworkers&#8217; premium \u200bhealth plans, amounting to over $6.9 billion in the 2025 budget\u2014marking \u2064a 21% surge from the prior year. These escalated expenses are linked to inflation, prompting State Sen. Dave Syverson to express apprehensions about \u200bthe noticeable spike in expenses compared to other states.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>(The Center Square) \u2013\u00a0Illinois taxpayers will be paying significantly more so state employees can have \u201cCadillac\u201d health insurance coverage. <\/p>\n<p>The Commission on Government Forecasting and Accountability met Tuesday in Springfield to review the fiscal year 2025 state employees\u2019 group insurance program.\u00a0According to the 2025 budget plan, the State Employee Group Health and Life Insurance program is proposed to receive more than $6.9 billion, a 21% overall increase from last year, when the program received $5.7 billion.<\/p>\n<p>The state\u2019s taxpayers and workers share in the cost of the program.<\/p>\n<p>Raven DeVaughn, director of the Illinois Department of Central Management Services, said the reason for the increased cost to fund the insurance program was because of inflation. <\/p>\n<p>State Sen.\u00a0State Sen. Dave Syverson, R-Cherry Hills, continued to press DeVaughn and pointed out other states aren\u2019t seeing this large of an increase.<\/p>\n<p>DeVaughn admitted that the reason Illinois\u2019 increases are larger than that of neighboring states is because the plans are \u201cCadillac\u201d plans.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere\u2019s no secret we have what we call a \u2018Cadillac\u2019 plan,\u201d said DeVaughn. \u201cOver the last three years, we saw traditional increases of between 5-9%. This year, between mandates from the General Assembly and our carriers, coming in at nearly 40% increases. Those are unheard of numbers. It has been consistent across our carriers. An extremely large increase across the board when it comes to state of Illinois coverage.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Illinois taxpayers are paying for a 16.5% increase. Syverson\u00a0said that state-enacted mandates have consequences.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen we continue to push these mandates, there\u2019s a cost to that,\u201d said Syverson. \u201cIf we\u2019re seeing a half a billion dollar increase, 16%, compared to all of the surrounding states that aren\u2019t any different than we are, that saw single digit increases [due to inflation], clearly it\u2019s an indicator of what the actions of this legislature has done with the mandates.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Syverson also pointed out the financial consequences of growing the government. In the past two years, the state employees\u2019 group insurance program has grown by 6,000 individuals and dependents. This means more active members have been added to an insurance program the taxpayers partially pay for.<\/p>\n<p>Syverson said the program is seeing such a large increase in cost partially due to legislative mandates.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThose mandates are not just increasing the cost to the Illinois taxpayer for this plan, but it means every small employer in Illinois is being hit with those same mandates and are feeling those same pains we\u2019re feeling right now,\u201d said Syverson.<\/p>\n<p>Syverson asked about the slew of mandates coming down the line for this legislative session. Kari Wolfe, Central Management Services\u2019 director for the Bureau of Benefits, said her office does a financial analysis on bills when they\u2019re sent.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere are some [bills] we have provided information on that are quite costly,\u201d said Wolfe.<\/p>\n<p>The proposed Healthcare Protection Act would target utilization management and ban step therapy. Gov. J.B. Pritzker has touted this proposed law.<\/p>\n<p>Used in the state employee group insurance program, utilization management is when providers use evidence-based criteria to determine the appropriateness of issuing benefits.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Illinois taxpayers face increased costs to provide state workers with &#8220;Cadillac&#8221; health insurance. The Commission on Government Forecasting and Accountability recently assessed the fiscal year 2025 state employees&#8217; insurance program in Springfield. The 2025 budget plan outlines adjustments to the State Employee Group Health and Life Insurance program<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3050,"featured_media":2217219,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/wex-s3.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/AP23293582244211-1024x683.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[538],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2217218","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-washington-examiner"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/wex-s3.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/AP23293582244211-1024x683.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2217218","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3050"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2217218"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2217218\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2217219"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2217218"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2217218"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2217218"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}