HELENA — A new report says insurance pays for 94 percent of Montana state employees’ health care costs.
That’s the equivalent of the best “platinum” plans that can be purchased through the health insurance exchanges that were launched last year.
Nationwide, state government plans pay on average 92 percent of an employee’s health care costs.
Montana Public Employees Association Executive Director Quinton Nyman says state governments typically attract employees with benefits because they can’t attract them with the pay that private employers offer.
The report by the Pew Charitable Trusts and the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation was released Tuesday.
It says Montana’s spending on its health plan has risen 1 percent between 2011 and 2013 to $126 million. The national average is a 2 percent spending increase.