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.