PEBP budget closes without amendment to proposed steep cuts

NFA's indefatiguable Sondra Cosgrove filed a detailed report on the closing of the PEBP budget Monday. Legislative budget committees, after lengthy discussion, did not alter the steep cuts to coverage proposed by the PEBP Board last fall.

The key elements are well known by now -- significant increase in HMO premiums (even steeper in southern NV than northern) or, for those formerly on the PPO plan, the conversion to a "Consumer Driven Health Plan" featuring a deductible more than four times what we paid up to 2009 -- an end to set payments for office visits or prescriptions, and a 20% increase in post-deductible patient responsibility.

In short, this is going to cost NSHE faculty and staff and their families hundreds or thousands more out of pocket each year going forward. Our compensation and benefits, already behind national market conditions, will fall farther behind as a result of this punitive action.