Connecticut is having second thoughts about opening up the state employee insurance pool to municipal workers because of lack information on the potential financial risks.
According to a letter obtained by the Associated Press, state budget director Benjamin Barnes wrote to Comptroller Kevin Lembo that he’s worried the state could face financial exposure if only small groups of city and town workers are pooled into the self-insured, state employee and retiree health insurance system.
Barnes’ main concern, the AP reports, is that collective bargaining rules will prevent most municipal employees from joining the state insurance pool, which could leave Connecticut adding only a small group of older, sicker municipal workers that will drive up costs through higher utilization rates.
Barnes said the wants a closer analysis of the risk involved before the state moves forward with the pooling concept. The state plan is scheduled to be opened to municipal workers next month.
State lawmakers passed the pooling law in the recent legislative session. It has been an initiative that democratic lawmakers have been pushing for years, but faced resistance from former Republican Gov. M. Jodi Rell.
Current Democratic Gov. Dannel P. Malloy signed the bill into law earlier this year.
