Hunterdon 2023 Health Benefits
FOR CWA MEMBERS EMPLOYED BY COUNTY OF HUNTERDON ONLY!!
The State imposed a 22% premium increase on health benefits which started January 2023. Our Hunterdon County membership, like others around the State, have started seeing these huge increases in our paycheck deductions for healthcare. The 22% rate increase affects workers, employers and taxpayers - these increases were imposed by the State, causing the employer and workers to pay much more for healthcare.
CWA has made progress with salary increases through out most recent contract and additional adjustments in the past two years. These healthcare increases are hurting that progress.
To avoid these huge increases, the County proposes to change plans. Proposing to change plans triggers negotiations and CWA is actively engaged with the County on this situation.
Based on our discussions, we expect initial action from the County as soon as January 31 to formally initiate the process. Again, discussion has already been underway but in order to start savings as soon as possible, advance official notice must be provided to the State and to the workforce, which we expect will happen at the end of this month.
Our negotiations will continue after January 31 until we reach a resolution that protects benefits and reduces costs.
One possible change is to leave the NJ State Health Benefits Plan altogether and go with a new Aetna plan.
This proposal means the entire County workforce would leave the NJSHBP and move to a "Aetna 10" PPO plan that is a mirror of the current NJ Direct 10 plan. The proposed Aetna copays, deductibles, and other costs are the same as NJD10.
Eighty-five percent (85%) of our members are enrolled in NJ Direct 10 now. The new "Aetna 10" would replace that plan.
"Aetna 10" is less expensive than NJD10 and employee contributions would be reduced. Our new contributions would be close, but still higher, than what we were paying in 2022.
The network of doctors is Aetna, not Horizon. This could mean disruption for some of our members if your doctors are currently in Horizon but do not accept Aetna. This disruption in providers could affect your choice of doctors, specialists, and hospitals. We encourage all members to contact your doctors and ask if they accept "Aetna Open Access insurance. (We do not recommend using websites to check insurance status - call your doctor's office directly.)
The proposed Aetna plan has a National network of doctors, same as NJ
Aetna also uses a different prescription drug list (called a "formulary") so Aetna may try to switch you to different alternatives than the brand name drugs you may use now. There would be a guaranteed transition period where your current drugs will be covered even if the Aetna list is different. But this is a possible disruption we would have to work through.
Another possible change is to stay in the NJ SHBP but replace NJ Direct 10 and NJ Direct 15 with NJ Direct 2030.
NJ 2030 is currently in the NJ SHBP. It is not a "new" plan. The proposal here is to move everyone in NJ10 or NJ15 up to the NJ2030 Plan.
NJ2030 has the same Horizon network of doctors, specialists, hospitals, etc. as NJ10. There would be no disruption in your doctors or providers moving from NJ10 to NJ2030. It is the same network of providers.
NJ 2030 is less expensive than NJ10 or NJ15. Employee contributions would be reduced almost to 2022 levels. Employee contributions for NJ2030 would be less than for the possible Aetna 10 plan.
NJ 2030 has different copays for office visits and prescriptions than NJ10. Office visits for regular health services are $20 instead of $10. Copays for specialist visits are $30 for adults and $20 for children, instead of the $10 they are now. The copays for generic drugs are the same, but for brand name drugs they are higher. See the Plan Benefits chart below for more information.
The cap on out-of-pocket expenses is a higher cap under NJ 2030. However, if you don't hit your cap under NJ 10 now, you won't hit the cap under NJ 2030 either.
CWA is in discussions with the County on how to minimize and offset the potential cost differences if we switched to NJ 2030.
In summary:
Aetna: same copays and benefits as NJ10, but the premiums are lower than NJ10 and our contributions would be lower. However, the doctors network is different (it's Aetna doctors not Horizon doctors) and the prescription list is different. We would negotiate to offset or minimize costs from disruption of your doctors or prescriptions, but moving to Aetna does change these lists from the current Horizon lists.
NJ2030: the NJ SHBP Horizon doctors list and prescription list are exactly the same as what we have now, and the premiums are almost the same as 2022 so our employee contributions would be reduced. However, copays for office visits and some prescriptions are higher than what we pay now, and the maximum out of pocket caps are higher. We would negotiate to offset or minimize any additional costs in these areas.
CWA Membership held an informational meeting on Wednesday, January 25. We are scheduling additional meetings both in-person and via Zoom in the coming week. Stay tuned for more announcements.
Handouts that were distributed were updated and are posted below.
QUESTIONS?? Please contact Adam Liebtag ASAP at (732) 266-2520 or aliebtag@cwa1036.org.
HANDOUTS: