Health Insurance perk should be canceled

What Indiana House Speaker Brian Bosma did a few days ago was welcome and good. And what Indiana Senate President Pro Tem Robert Garton is considering is promising.

But it's not enough.

Bosma ordered the end of free lifetime health insurance for current and future House members, their spouses, ex-spouses and minor children. According to news reports, Garton is considering doing the same thing in the Senate.

The perk was included in a 2002 bill, and it covered members of the General Assembly and their families once they retire, so long as they had at least six years of service. Under Bosma's order, no House members who serve beyond Nov. 7, 2006, may get the package. Nineteen House members who retired after the new benefit was added would still be allowed to get it as well as current members, who have at least six years of service, if they don't seek re-election, according to news reports.

Hoosiers should not have to count on orders from the House speaker and the Senate president pro tem. Those orders can be changed easily.

The whole plan, including the enrollment authority granted the speaker and president pro tem, should be repealed. That is why House Bill 1309 should be brought out of committee and passed by both the House and the Senate.

The whole issue caught people's attention when state Auditor Connie Nass said the plan was expected to cost the state $306,000 a year by 2008.

Given the state's financial condition and especially the problems with Medicare funding, there shouldn't be much discussion.

That's in addition to the embarrassment factor. Considering the financial demands health insurance places on so many constituents, as well as those constituents who can't even afford it, legislators should, in theory, at least, be ashamed to sign up.

Some might argue that the free health insurance was an incentive to get people to consider public service. Maybe, but members of the General Assembly should not be treated differently than other state employees, and this isn't available to all of them. (And before someone gets a bright idea, it shouldn't be made available to all state employees, either.)

No one enjoys paying higher health insurance premiums. But taxpayers should not be saddled with another government cost that easily can be avoided.

The perk was ridiculous when it became law in 2002, and nothing has changed that. HB 1309 should become law, and the health insurance perk should become history.