Health insurance deductibles for individual government workers will triple under a proposed contract, with those for families doubling, according to a preliminary analysis by legislative Post Auditor Maureen Rabsatt-Cullar.
Government employees now pay a deductible of $50, while families pay $150. Under the plan being considered by the Health Insurance Board, the individual deductible would jump to $150 and that for families to $300.
The increases are part of a proposed one-year interim contract that would enable the government to bid for a new health insurance carrier. The current carrier, Blue Cross-Blue Shield (also known as QCC), has blamed rising medical costs for the requested hikes, which would put the V.I. more on par with national averages, Paulette Rabsatt, who chairs the board and the Government Employees Services Commission, said in an interview with the Virgin Islands Daily News.
Conventional medical coverage is going up by 22.74 percent, from a total of $36 million to $44 million, and conventional dental coverage is increasing by 38.93 percent, from $2.9 million annually to $4 million, according to Rabsatt.
The government now picks up 66 percent of the cost for health insurance. Employees pay the other 34 percent. At least 12,000 government employees and their families are covered under the plan.
Government employees would face yet-higher deductibles if they seek treatment anywhere but the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico.
Rabsatt met with senators and staff Monday to outline options in the new health plan, which would also include less drastic hikes in exchange for more limited coverage than exists in the current contract.
When the first QCC plan period ended March 30, 1999, there was a surplus, and the board distributed it to government employees by structuring the new plan with a lower deductible, from more than $200 to just $50.
The latest contract expired on Sept. 30, 2000, and the board has received extensions since then. But Sen. Alicia "Chucky" Hansen said in a statement Monday that the extensions were illegal under the V.I. Code "without an approved appropriation by the Legislature."
