HOUSE CONCURRENT RESOLUTION NO. 23

(By Delegates Hubbard, Anderson, Boggs, C. White, Sparks, Susman, Compton, Dempsey, Damron, Houston, Hunt, Kuhn, Capito, Tucker, Caputo, McGraw, Hines, H. White, Flanigan and Hutchins)


Expressing the sense of the Legislature to provide adequate and affordable health care to public employees in the State of West Virginia by appropriating sufficient funds to maintain the present coverage and benefits available to public employees through the Public Employee Insurance Agency without increasing costs to those employees.

Whereas, The citizens of West Virginia are well served by competent, highly trained and effective public employees; and

Whereas, To keep and attract well trained and highly effective individuals in critical areas of public employment, such as police, firefighters, and educators, the State must offer and maintain compensation for services which are commensurate with other pubic and private employees; and

Whereas, An increase in costs for health insurance to public employees significantly decreases their compensation while their pay remains significantly below the national average and that offered by contiguous states making it more difficult to keep and attract the highest quality public employees which the citizens
of this State deserve; and
Whereas, Increases in the cost of providing health insurance are due to factors such as prices for prescription drugs, and inaccessibility to comparable health care in-state or without traveling great distances, which are beyond the control of covered employees, and utilization will not be significantly deterred by increasing deductibles, copayments or other out of pocket expenses for the employees; and

Whereas, The increased cost of health care for public employees may be better addressed through creative measures for exploiting the state's purchasing power for prescription drugs and providing alternative sources for treatment to rural employees to reduce reliance upon emergency rooms and out-of- state providers and other innovative approaches rather than penalizing public employees for increased cost of health care which are beyond their control; and

Whereas, The Public Employees Insurance Agency was one of the lead plaintiffs in the nationwide tobacco litigation and significant amounts of the proceeds from the settlement of that case may be used to supplement the cost of providing adequate and affordable health care to public employees and their families; therefore, be it

Resolved by the Legislature of West Virginia:

That it is the will of the Legislature of the State of West Virginia to appropriate sufficient funds for the Public Employees Insurance Agency to provide all coverage and benefits presently available to the public employees in West Virginia through the Public Employees Insurance Agency at no additional cost to those employees and that the Legislature in conjunction with the executive branch, the Public Employees Insurance Agency, and representatives of those employees as well as other significantly affected groups seek creative ways to control the costs of providing adequate and affordable health care to public employees without impairing the government's ability to attract the most highly trained and qualified individuals to public service in West Virginia.