When state employee Jason DeBottis learned that his health benefits may be cut under Gov. Rick Scott’s new budget proposal, he thought of his 17-month-old daughter’s multiple ear infections.
Then he thought of his wife, who wants another baby. Could they afford prenatal care?
“I only took this job because of the benefits,” said the 37-year-old University of Florida student, who works full-time as a security guard at the Florida Museum of Natural History. “If my benefits are eliminated, what’s the point?”
Scott’s proposal, submitted to the Legislature in early February, would save Florida tens of millions of dollars each year by placing a greater share of health care costs on state employees and their families.
Beginning in 2013, Scott wants to give each employee a flat amount of $5,000 a year to pay for insurance, which for family coverage would be about $7,000 less than the state currently provides.
If the House and Senate go along when they put their budgets together, a single worker would receive the same $5,000 for coverage as a worker who needs to cover a spouse and children – someone like DeBottis, whose wife also attends college.Like most state employees, DeBottis pays only a small fraction of his monthly insurance premiums, about $200, while the state puts up more than $1,000. With his annual salary of about $21,000, he could not afford to make up the $7,000 the proposal would take away.
About 177,200 employees are covered under the state plan, not counting family members and retirees. During the current fiscal year, the state’s cost for all of them is expected to be $1.9 billion.
Scott and other conservatives are pushing for changes in the insurance program partly to help the state grapple with huge budget problems. But they also contend that state employees enjoy richer benefits than private-sector workers.
Many state workers are upset by what they perceive as a public turn against state employees.
“The way politicians spin this, you’d think we were freeloaders instead of fellow citizens and taxpayers,” said Stephen Lloyd, who makes about $38,450 per year as an environmental specialist at Florida’s Department of Forestry.
He took a 12 percent pay cut when he left his job at a timber company in South Georgia, he said, but he was okay with it because of the benefits for him, his wife and his two children.
“Now I’m not sure that was the best decision,” he said.
By Brittany Davis
Health News Florida
