The state has voted to restructure health care premiums for its employees, to avoid paying the federal government’s new "Cadillac Tax."
The Cadillac Tax goes into effect in a few years. It will take money from people who have high-end health insurance plans to help pay for all the additional people who now have insurance under the Affordable Care Act.
The state’s existing individual employees plans would trigger the tax, costing the state more than $300 million.
Kathy Loretz of Oregon’s Public Employee Benefit Board, or PEBB, says the state is re-balancing premiums so they won’t trigger the tax.
“What is going to happen is that employee premiums are going to go down a little bit, and the employee and family group will go up," she said.
"So total premiums will end up being the same from PEBB's point of view. However, how it is distributed is different.”
Union members on the PEBB board voted for the change, meaning there shouldn't be much opposition to the change.
Copyright 2015 Oregon Public Broadcasting
