The individual per person cost of insuring a Kentucky state employee under their new plan in 2014 will be $933.16 a month. That applies to every individual employee regardless of any factors that might otherwise impact an insurance premium rate. Under ObamaCare, a Louisville resident age 64, non-smoker who chooses a $6300 deductible will have a total cost of insurance of $905.73 a month if he uses up all of his deductible.
Most state employees, obviously, are less than 64 and won't use up all of a $6300 deductible for the Bronze plan, which is projected to be the most popular ObamaCare plan.
I've had several legislators tell me Gov. Beshear can't throw the state employees into ObamaCare without legislative approval. That, of course, depends on what the Kentucky Supreme Court thinks KRS 12.028 means when it says the same thing.
And to be clear, this is no endorsement of ObamaCare. It's just that the state employee plan was purposely set up this year to be far worse even than that. A 26 year old Louisville resident and non-smoker on the same ObamaCare plan will have a monthly cost of $659.95. That's horrible compared to 2013, but a bargain compared to costs on the state plan.
