DE Health Care Costs Up

in delaware — lawmakers say a very unexpected — and costly turn could be on the way for state employees. that means it might affect the lawmakers themselves — but also thousands of their constituents. 47 abc’s kelly rule has the story. track 1 representative tim dukes is one of more than 120-thousand delawareans benefitting from a state employee healthcare plan. a plan — that in a few months — could face increases of 500 to 1-thousand dollars — in deductibles alone. 18;15;47 i’ve probably had about 250 emails from different state employees from different departments who have just reached out saying is there anyway that you can help 18;15;57 track 2 and the issue is — he can’t. the proposed increases — which also include smaller hikes to co-pays for things like prescription drugs and lab and radiology work — come from recommendations by the state employee benefits committee — which oversees state employees’ health insurance. currently — the state spends about 360 million towards health benefits — and this year — governor markell is proposing an additional 26-point-1 million… but with more people getting healthcare through the affordable care act — and increases in costs for hospital admissions and specialty drugs — there is a 60 million dollar health plan deficit. and committee members say the state only expects to get worse. 04:24 hepatitis c for example can cost over 100,000 for a course of treatment 4:29 butt sot 8:00 the revenues just aren’t available to make easy decisions 8:05 18;14;54 when you’re looking at that large of a number something has to be done and so were just trying to find the best solution to fix this 18;15;01 track 4 legislators say they hope the committee can hold off on the decision for now — so they can look at alternatives… but if there aren’t any available — they’re worried people will opt out of healthcare completely — or worse. 18;17;24 the fear is that we’ll lose some really good employees 18;17;27 butt sot 18;17;51 we’re just asking them to come up with some type of resolution 18;17;53 track 5 kelly rule…47 abc. the state employee benefits committee is expected to vote on the proposals on march 20th — that’s a week from friday. if they vote on the increases — legislators say they expect them to go into effect within a few