Study: Health care cheap for Oregon state employees
- The average Oregon state employee pays %2468 per month vs. %24231 nationally for state workers
- Oregon pays an average of %241%2C284 per month for each employee
- Oregon state employees contribute just 5 percent of their monthly premiums
Oregon state workers have one of the best health insurance deals in the country, at least among state employees, a new study shows.
The average Oregon state employee pays $68 per month for health insurance, less than all but two states. Nationally, state government employees pay an average of $231 per month.
The state pays an average of $1,284 per month on each of its employees, a study released Tuesday by the Pew Center Charitable Trusts found. Just five other states pay more: Alaska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Vermont and Wisconsin.
However, Oregon's state employees contribute just 5 percent of their premiums. That is low compared to other states, many of which ask employees to cover about 20 percent of their premium cost.
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Only nine states ask their employees to contribute less, and some allow that only for the cheapest plans that cover just one person.
Alaska and North Carolina employees both contribute 3 percent, and employees in Iowa, Minnesota, Montana, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota and Texas contribute nothing.
However, only Alaska, North Dakota and Oklahoma allow employees to pay that little if they have a plan that includes dependents.
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But even the states that allow employees to pay nothing for some plans are getting a better deal than the State of Oregon.
For example, the cost of a health plan that covers a single Oregon employee with no family is $1,030 per month. (That's the second-highest in the country.) That means an Oregon employee is paying $51.50 for that plan while the state is paying $978.50.
Iowa's plans cost about half as much at $518. Iowa is covering the entire bill for its employees, but it is saving $460.50 over Oregon.
Oklahoma and North Dakota, whose employees pay nothing for any plan, still pay more than $400 less per month on average than Oregon does because their individual plans are so much cheaper.
The study was narrow and did not cover some key areas of employee compensation. For example, it did not examine health insurance contributions as a percentage of total salary, thereby not showing the actual burden on employees.
Further, it does not compare the cost of health care across states.
RELATED: Health insurance rates decline for 2015
Oregon's PEBB insures employees through Northwest companies such as Providence Health, but the study does not discuss how many states use regional or local health care providers versus national carriers. It also does not discuss how much those companies' prices vary.
The study show's the state's costs rose 1 percent between 2011 and 2013, considerably less than many states but more than many others, which cut costs during that period following the passage of the federal Affordable Care Act.
hhoffman@statesmanjournal.com, (503) 399-6719 or follow at twitter.com/HannahKHoffman