To Attract Members, Indiana Legislature Improves Health Insurance Plan for State Lawmakers

Hoping to recruit candidates for public office, the Indiana Legislature passed a measure to boost health insurance benefits for the state's part-time lawmakers -- a plan that "now rivals what top private sector companies offer," the Indianapolis Star reports. Under state House Enrolled Act 1667, which took effect last month, lawmakers expanded their health coverage to include former spouses who have not remarried. Surviving spouses of deceased lawmakers also qualify for state health insurance, a provision "virtually unheard of" in the private sector, the Star reports. In addition, the law allows children of lawmakers to receive coverage up to age 23, or 25 for those attending college, while most health insurance plans only allow children to receive coverage up to age 19, or 23 for those in college. Lawmakers also reduced the number of years -- from 10 to eight or less -- that part-time lawmakers must serve before they become eligible for some health benefits. "This kind of stuff is important when you look at how you're going to attract people to the Legislature," state Rep. Michael Smith (R) said. According to Andrew Geiger, a policy analyst with the National Conference of State Legislatures, state lawmakers nationwide have improved their health insurance plans in recent years. "A lot of them are seeing it as a recruiting tool," Geiger said, adding that they "want middle-class people to be able to serve in the Legislature and still pay their family bills." House Enrolled Act 1667 also extends state health coverage to retired state employees ages 65 and older and mandates that at least one of the covered plans must offer prescription drug benefits. Retirees will "bear all costs associated" with the new health plan, Keith Beesley, chief legal counsel for the State Personnel Department, said. He added that the department will likely begin offering health insurance to an estimated 9,900 retirees in the next few weeks (Solida, Indianapolis Star, 8/21). For further information on state health policy in Indiana, visit State Health Facts Online.