Bill > H0580

Introduced Session

This bill proposes to make all public employees who are eligible to receive health benefits through their employment, including current and retired State employees, school employees, municipal employees, and employees of the University of Vermont and the Vermont State Colleges, eligible for coverage through the State employees’ health plan, which would become the public employees’ health plan. It would establish the independent Commission on Public Employee Health Benefits to determine the design of the health benefit plan and the respective percentages of plan premiums that will be borne by the public employers and by the participating public employees. The bill would also remove health care from the matters subject to collective bargaining between public employers and public employees. The bill proposes to move the costs of insurance for current and retired school employees out of the Education Fund, and the costs of insurance for H.580 other current and retired public employees out of each individual agency’s budget, and instead to reflect all of these insurance costs in the budget for the public employees’ health plan. The bill would require the Governor’s proposed budget for each fiscal year to include as a separate line item the recommended appropriation amount for public employee health benefits to be provided through the public employees’ health plan. The bill would direct the Secretary of Administration to provide information about the public employees’ health plan annually as part of the Agency of Administration’s budget presentation, including information regarding the estimated total cost of the plan for the upcoming fiscal year; the costs of the plan to date for the current fiscal year and the estimated total cost over that full fiscal year; the percentage change in the total cost of the plan year over year; the number of covered lives in the plan during each of the previous two plan years, during the current plan year, and as estimated for the upcoming plan year; the cost per covered life in the plan during each of the previous two plan years, during the current plan year, and as estimated for the upcoming plan year; and the percentage change in the cost per covered life in the plan year over year. The bill would also require the Governor’s proposed budget for each fiscal year to include as a separate line item the recommended appropriation amount for the Medicaid program in the same section of the budget as the amount for the public employees’ health plan or in an adjacent section so that all budget H.580 provisions related to State costs for health care services can be viewed together. Additional State health care expenditures to be included and reported in the same or an adjacent section of the budget would include the appropriations for VPharm, the Medicare Savings Programs, Dr. Dynasaur, premium and cost-sharing assistance for eligible individuals enrolled in qualified health benefit plans, and Dr. Dynasaur-like coverage for eligible immigrant populations. The bill would direct the Green Mountain Care Board and the Agency of Human Services to provide certain information about costs and expenditures for health insurance, public health benefit programs, and health care goods and services by and on behalf of Vermonters annually as part of the Board’s and Agency’s respective budget presentations, including total costs and expenditures; costs and expenditures per covered life; cost and expenditure trends over time; and costs borne by the State, by the federal government, and by Vermont households.

AI Summary

Committee Categories

Bram Kleppner (D)*, 

Read first time and referred to the Committee on Health Care (on 01/06/2026)

Official Document