The N&O today reports on something I highlighted three weeks ago in my “North Carolina’s Fiscal Tsunami” article: North Carolina’s State Health Plan is in woeful fiscal condition.
The House is still plugging away on its budget proposal, but looming over lawmakers is a deep hole in the State Health Plan.
Over the 2012-2013 fiscal years, the state could be forced to add as much as $500 million to the plan to cover rising health care costs, House Majority Leader Hugh Holliman said Wednesday.
The plan, which provides health insurance to state employees, teachers and retirees, has serious problems with its structure. The plan has few of the younger, healthier people who help make a risk pool sustainable. Meanwhile, state employees do not pay premiums so the state has to pick up increased costs.
what is the difference between health insurance and a health plan?
The “State Health Plan” is the name for the insurance coverage of state employees.