Editorial: Health benefits changes welcome; more needed

Progress is progress, but let’s not get too carried away by Gov. Phil Murphy’s plan announced this week to save taxpayers nearly $500 million in the next two years because of changes made to the state’s health benefits plan for public employees and retirees. The plan, which will involve steering employees and retirees to in-network doctors and generic drugs, is the result of consensus reached between the Democratic governor and unions.

Murphy, a Democrat who won election last year in part by garnering widespread support among the rank-and-file of the state’s largest public unions, has been reluctant to embrace any sort of hardball plan to begin to get New Jersey’s public pension and health care obligations under control, hailed the measure as a “win-win,” for state workers and taxpayers.

“As I’ve said from Day One, I believe in the power of collective bargaining and negotiating in good faith with our workforce," Murphy said in a statement. "Today’s agreement is a testament that this approach works — for the state of New Jersey, for workers, and for our taxpayers."

Murphy’s team says the savings will be achieved by pushing Medicare-eligible retirees from preferred-provider plans to Medicare Advantage, and by making it more costly for employees and retirees to use out-of-network specialists and brand-name prescriptions. Employees and retirees will have no co-pays for in-network doctors and $3 co-pays for generic prescription drugs.

This is progress, yes, but it is more nibbling at the edges, when far greater steps toward a more affordable, sustainable future are in order.

As James Nash and Dustin Racioppi of the USA TODAY NETWORK New Jersey Trenton Bureau report, the state is spending $15,680 this year on health care for the average employee and $12,988 for the average retiree, according to figures from the state treasurer's office. Private-sector employers in New Jersey spend an average of $4,747 per employee for health insurance, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation.

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State retirees get health plans with maximum out-of-pocket annual costs as low as $400 for individuals and $1,000 for families. The changes are expected to yield $274 million in savings in the coming plan year, and another $222 million in year 2020, Murphy’s office said.

Certainly, we appreciate state workers and want them to get what is due them, in terms of benefits, but sooner or later the state is going to have to bite the bullet, and bring a level of sanity back to the discussion. A bipartisan panel convened under former Gov. Chris Christie called for tougher love than Murphy where it concerned health care benefits. That panel concluded that public employees’ health care benefits should be pared back to the “gold level,” under the Affordable Care Act.

The co-chairs of that commission, Thomas Healey and Thomas Byrne, both called Murphy's announcement Monday a positive step in reining in health insurance costs. "Let us hope that today’s plan isn’t an excuse to forgo the remainder" of the panel's recommendations for savings, Healey said.

We would echo Healey’s words. This is a start, but more substantive fiscal responsibility must come before it’s too late. Instead of calling the health plan changes a “win-win,” we would call it a “partial win” that will be short-lived if other substantive changes aren’t brought soon.