Florida Lawmakers Keep Their Health Premiums Below Other State Workers’

Florida legislators, saying that they differ from rank-and-file state workers, have killed an effort to force themselves to pay more for their health insurance.

The 160 members in the Florida Legislature pay among the lowest premiums in state government.

Legislators pay $8.34 a month for individual coverage and $30 a month for family coverage. That’s the same amount that about 32,000 state workers and top officials such as Gov. Rick Scott pay. Rank-and-file state workers, however, pay $50 a month for individual coverage and $180 a month for family coverage.

Sen. Joe Negron, R-Stuart, said legislators should pay the same for health insurance as janitors and prison guards.

“There is no rationale for the Legislature to pay significantly lower health insurance than our co-workers in state government,” Negron said. “Why should we pay less for health insurance than the men and women who are part of the custodial staff?”

Negron tried to place the health insurance provision in a bill dealing with state employment. But he ran into fierce opposition from both Democrats and Republicans on the Senate Budget Committee.

They argued that they are already sacrificing financially to be in the Legislature and that their salaries have been reduced or frozen in recent years. Legislators earn slightly less than $30,000 a year while the two legislative leaders earn slightly more than $41,000.

Sen. Gary Siplin, D-Orlando, argued that lawmakers were “different from janitors” since they have to contend with contested elections and can be accused by political opponents of ethical wrongdoing. Siplin has battled several ethics charges over the last decade.

“This is an expense for us, this is not a benefit,” Siplin said.

Sen. Ellyn Bogdanoff, R-Fort Lauderdale, blasted Negron’s proposal as an attempt to make a political statement that can be placed on a campaign mail piece, while Sen. Mike Bennett, R-Bradenton, said the hike in premiums would result in only wealthy people getting elected.

This marks one of the few times that lawmakers have openly debated how much they pay for health insurance. The issue is normally addressed in the state budget. The health insurance coverage provided to legislators used to be free but the state started charging the current rate in 2010.

Gov. Scott has recommended for the last two years that all state employees pay the same for health insurance, but his proposal hasn’t gotten very far.

“The right thing is that we all should pay the same premium,” Scott said earlier this month. “That’s what I believe should happen and I’ll be looking into it. No one likes anything to go up. I just want to be fair to everybody.”

Last fall the Senate reported that all 40 Florida senators were enrolled in the state health insurance plan, while a House spokeswoman said that 112 out of 120 House members were covered by the state.

The state is projected to spend nearly $2 billion during its current budget year to provide health insurance coverage for more than100,000 state employees. Most of the money spent on the coverage comes from taxpayers and not employee premiums.

Topics Florida Legislation