From the New Jersey Department of Treasury:
TRENTON – State Treasurer Elizabeth Maher Muoio today laid out a framework for several initial state health benefit cost-saving measures underway by the Murphy Administration that are projected to yield significant annual savings for taxpayers, while upholding the state’s commitment to public employees.
The Treasurer underscored the need to enact these measures swiftly in light of yesterday’s presentation to the state health benefits plan design commissions by AON, the state’s health consulting service, that indicated most state health benefit plans for active members could see a six percent increase in premiums in 2019.
“As part of the Governor’s goal to change the way we do business, we put together an internal working group at the start of this administration that was tasked with finding more immediate health benefit cost savings,” said Muoio. “These initial measures are designed to exact savings through efficiencies in order to keep premiums in check while maintaining the same quality level of service for members. We anticipate that these proposals can be enacted relatively quickly while the Governor’s Special Task Force pursues longer term savings, enhanced value within the plans, and efficiencies. Ultimately, our goal is to find the most cost-effective means to deliver quality health benefits to our nearly one million state and local government and school employees.”
The working group is comprised of staff from the Treasurer’s Office, the Governor’s policy team, the Office of Management and Budget, and the Division of Pension and Benefits.
The following proposals identified by the working group, some of which were included in the budget signed by Governor Murphy, are expected to yield significant annual savings to be shared by the state, local governments, school districts, and health plan members:
Treasury’s Division of Pension and Benefits (DPB) oversees the health benefits of 813,180 state and local government and school employees. Of these employees, 485,882 members are enrolled in SHBP; 327,298 members are enrolled in SEHBP; 502,668 of these members are active employees; and 310,512 members are retired employees.