THE CNMI’s health insurance coverage for government employees is not enough, which is why many of the workers end up paying for their own additional medical expenses, according to the legal counsel of the Retirement Fund.
Kathleen Troy-Rucker said the government has not increased its contribution for the health benefits of government workers for the past 20 years even as medical costs increase every year.
“We want the government employees to get a reasonable amount of coverage. A decent and fair amount of coverage. The government has to help us do that. This is a government program so the government has to help us do that. We can’t do it on our own,” she said.
Troy-Rucker said many government employees and their dependents suffering from various illnesses have already consumed their health insurance benefits before the 12-month covered period expired. Hence, when any of them got sick again, they had to pay for the medical expenses themselves.
“For a long time, we felt that the coverage, particularly the annual maximum and lifetime maximum, was much too low and that enough coverage was just not being provided,” Troy-Rucker said.
She said the situation reached their attention when it was reported to them that some members of the government health insurance plan had already consumed the maximum amount allowed in their plan even before the end of the year.
“This was very disturbing to us to realize that a lot of government employees or their dependents might have had serious illnesses from the beginning of the year and with all of the medical charges from the hospitals and the doctors, it had eaten up their entire coverage for that year. So if they get sick again, it would be entirely their burden,” she said.
The Retirement Fund, which is administering the government health plan, wants to double the annual health insurance coverage of government workers from $25,000 to $50,000 (low option) and $50,000 to $100,000 (high option).
This is supposed to take effect starting this year. But Troy-Rucker said the plan is still subject to the enactment of the government budget for fiscal year 2003.
