NC Treasurer Brad Briner said rising health care costs may force an increase in premiums for teachers and state employees on the State Health Plan. (Photo: Screengrab from state Treasurer’s YouTube channel)
A week into his position as North Carolina’s state treasurer, Brad Briner had to deliver some uncomfortable news at Thursday’s meeting of the State Board of Education. Briner told board members that the state health plan is running a $507 million deficit even after “a record appropriation expectation the General Assembly.”
Briner’s predecessor, Republican Dale Folwell, warned last August the health insurance plan covering teachers and state employees needed the legislature to reimburse it $250 million for COVID costs. But the state also needed to develop a better strategy to address rising healthcare costs over the long term.
“This is not a crisis that is going away,” cautioned Folwell during his final months in office.
For Treasurer Briner that financial worry is now a reality in managing the health insurance plan that covers roughly 750,000 state employees, teachers, dependents, and retirees.
“The truth is, as everybody knows who buys health care in this country, the underlying problem is a cost problem,” Briner told the state board. “My expectation is that after we are done doing everything we can to lower the cost of administering this program, we will unfortunately have to raise premiums for the first time in I believe nine years for all employees of the state.”
Briner said his office would consider means testing in an effort to minimize the impact on the state’s lowest paid workers, but they should expect that they will be asked to pay something.
“My guess [and] do not hold me to this exact number is we’re looking at a minimum of twenty dollars a month increase cost per employee,” Briner calculated.
As the Board of Education discussed its 2025 legislative priorities, board member Kim Jones, North Carolina’s 2023 Teacher of the Year, suggested it would send a powerful message if the state board could stand in alignment with the treasurer’s office and support increased funding for the state health plan for teachers and retirees.
Jones said meager teacher raises and the prospect of higher insurance premiums would cost North Carolina good teachers.
“When I cannot afford to either take myself nor my children to the hospital, when we can’t afford to carry our families on our health plans and we don’t receive increased compensation to cover things like inflation and increased cost of living, you are going to lose teachers,” Jones cautioned.
Jones said an erosion of benefits would not only impact new teachers straight out of college considering the profession, but veteran educators as well.
“Those of us are having to make very bold and very difficult choices about the health of our families and our bodies and our long-term well-being by having to leave the profession to either earn more or to get better health coverage,” Jones said.
Briner described the issue as a 2026 problem, giving the state time to explore creative solutions.
“We are doing our level best to insulate all of our particularly lower income public servants from the cost escalations that the health care business in general are experiencing,” Briner told the board.
The State Health Plan’s board of trustees and Briner are expected to further discuss options when they meet February 7th.