Retirement System Looks to Cut Costs
The Legislature is gathering information and ideas for 2013. Photo by Liang Shi/KUT NewsAudio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Texas lawmakers are once again heading into a legislative session with concerns over the fiscal health of the state’s major pension systems, and changes to retirees’ health insurance may play a role.
Let’s start by saying the state’s Teacher Retirement System is not out of money. As of August the fund was valued at $111 billion, about $41 billion more than just three years ago at the height of the recession. But the fund’s long-term stability is in question.
So when the state reduced its contribution to the fund, TRS decided to lower its own costs, starting with the bill for health insurance.
“We are actually going to offer a Medicare Advantage option for our Medicare-eligible population,” Executive Director Brian Guthrie told the Texas Senate State Affairs Committee on Monday. “We are structuring that program in a way that everyone who is Medicare-eligible will be automatically enrolled but they do have the opportunity to opt out. That opt-out period is occurring right now and will end at the end of this month.”
He says if the system can get 80 percent participation in the program it could save the fund more than $300 million over the next two years, enough that the system wouldn’t need extra funding from the 2013 Legislature.
But that plan is just one of several proposals for some more long-term financial stability, proposals that could need changes to the law or other legislative approval. Sen. Rodney Ellis, D-Houston, said the one problem with making any drastic changes is how it could affect longtime TRS beneficiaries who are now on fixed incomes and didn’t budget for a change.
Guthrie says the goal Monday was to give lawmakers several options to consider, and then begin running the numbers on the most popular options. The 2013 legislative session begins Jan 8.
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