State board approves self-insurance for state workers
Wisconsin will move to self-insure state workers beginning next year after the controversial plan was adopted Wednesday by the Group Insurance Board, but it still must be approved by the state Legislature’s budget committee.
After years of discussing the idea, the insurance board voted 10-1 to change the way the state finances a $1.5 billion health insurance program that covers about 250,000 state and some local government workers and their dependents. Instead of paying premiums to 17 HMOs, which accept the risk for medical claims, the state intends to pay benefits directly and take on the risk.
“We’ll be leaving money on the table if in the end we do not move to (this) model,” said Michael Heifetz, a board member who is state Medicaid director. “What the board is doing is controlling more of what it can control, rather than ceding that authority to folks with whom we contract.”
Under the plan, Dean Health Plan, part of SSM Health, and Quartz, which includes UW Health’s Unity Health Plan, will administer the self-insured program in Dane County and surrounding counties.
http://host.madison.com/wsj/news/local/health-med-fit/state-board-approves-self-insurance-for-state-workers/article_3c4ff3e6-f878-54e4-845c-88d67f675f60.html
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The last self insured plan my family was in (a major "bank"
was one of those high deductible HSA type plans. Took a "pay cut" to return to a job with a standard PPO and ended up ahead financially.
