The Cost Of A Healthy Legislature Some, Including Lawmakers, Critical Of Health Insurance Coverage

Idaho’s legislative session runs only three months, but state lawmakers get health insurance all year, courtesy of the taxpayers.

Other state employees must work a minimum of 20 hours a week and five months per year to qualify for the health plan. For state lawmakers, those rules don’t apply.

“They’ve always been considered as eligible,” said Cynthia Davis, group insurance chief for the state Department of Administration. “I don’t know what their reasoning is for that.”

One in five Idahoans has no health insurance at all. Studies in recent years have found that the main reason is because they can’t afford it.

Legislators say they work hard, and not just during the session. But some say the state shouldn’t pay for lawmakers’ health insurance anyway, especially since many legislators have access to health coverage through their other jobs or businesses.

“It is an inequity when taxpayers who can’t afford insurance for themselves are paying for our insurance,” said former state Rep. Janet Jenkins.

In 1992, Jenkins and Rep. Jim Stoicheff, D-Sandpoint, introduced legislation to deny lawmakers taxpayer-funded health insurance until every Idahoan had access to health coverage. The bill went nowhere.

“It never got mentioned by any committee,” Stoicheff said.

Many lawmakers say Idaho’s Legislature no longer is part-time. Sen. Mary Lou Reed, D-Coeur d’Alene, said, “I think it’s a rare week that I don’t put in at least 40 hours.”

“There are a lot of demands,” she said.

House Speaker Mike Simpson, a dentist, said, “It’s becoming more and more of a full-time job for most legislators. I don’t want it to become that. But they spend more and more time during the other nine months doing things that are legislatively related.”

Gov. Phil Batt said he thinks Idaho still has a part-time Legislature, but he has no problem with the insurance benefit. “They’re hard-working,” he said of lawmakers. “Some of them work at it constantly, others don’t. They put in more than just the session time, that’s for sure.”

Batt said he thought the cost of health insurance should be considered as part of lawmakers’ compensation. Lawmakers are paid $12,360 per year in salary, plus travel and expenses during the session ($70 per day for those who must travel to Boise); travel and expenses plus a $50-a-day salary for interim committee meetings; life insurance; health insurance; retirement benefits; and a $500 lump sum for off-session “constituent service” expenses.

Health insurance, which costs the state $2,795 per year per lawmaker, is “a big part of their package,” the governor said. “Instead of $12,000 per year, they actually get (closer to) $14,500.”

Simpson agreed. “It’s all part of our compensation.”

And he noted that a citizens’ committee now sets legislators’ compensation levels.

The current level of pay and benefits is appropriate, Simpson said. “It was brought up fairly significantly four or five years ago. I think it’s necessary to keep good legislators, people willing to run for the Legislature and be away from their businesses for three months.”

Barbara Miller of the People’s Action Coalition, which advocates for poor Silver Valley residents with health problems, said she wouldn’t want to deny legislators - or anyone else - health coverage. But, she said, “I don’t think people who have health care realize what it’s like to not have access to health care and coverage.”

Miller wondered how many lawmakers already have coverage through their other jobs or businesses. Perhaps, in those cases, “those costs could be shifted to those who need it,” she said.

When he first took office more than two decades ago, Stoicheff, a retired teacher, tried to decline the health insurance. “Now I take the insurance because they said it didn’t save anything,” he said. “It wouldn’t bother me one bit if we repealed all that and said everyone buys their own insurance.”

Rep. Jeff Alltus, R-Coeur d’Alene, who sells health insurance for a living, said he could buy his own, but he thinks the benefit is appropriate. “I’m putting 15 to 20 hours in every single week, and I haven’t had a break,” he said.

“For me, it’s a significant cut in pay to be a legislator,” Alltus said. “Most of us work far more than what we get paid for.”

, DataTimes MEMO: These sidebars appeared with the story: Lawmakers’ health insurance Idaho spends $2,795 per lawmaker, per year. They get their choice of the same health plans offered to all state employees. Under the most popular plan statewide, they pay a premium of $6 per month for one person, or $34.90 for the lawmaker plus one dependent, $60.80 for the lawmaker and two or more dependents. Deductible under that plan is $250, after which 80 percent of medical expenses are paid. Prescriptions cost $14. Some dental and vision services are covered. Other options include the same premium with a $110 deductible but no vision and very limited dental coverage; or a much higher premium with a $110 deductible and more vision and dental coverage. With 105 state lawmakers, the cost to the state is close to $300,000 per year.

Opinions sought Do you think Idaho legislators should get health benefits yearround? Why or why not? Call 765-8811, and punch in extension 9890. Please leave your name, a daytime phone number and your comments. You must have a Touch-Tone phone. Any normal long-distance charges apply.