Nevada will be the first state to charge unvaccinated workers $55-a-month health insurance surcharge 

• Nevada will become the first state to charge unvaccinated state workers enrolled in public employee health insurance plans a monthly surcharge 
• The monthly surcharge is set to offset the costs of COVID testing and hospitalizations for the unvaccinated 
• Unvaccinated workers will be charged up to $55 per month, while their adult dependents will be charged $175 per month
• The surcharges will go into effect in July 2022, unless members provide proof of an approved exemption
• Nevada has recorded 417 new daily confirmed COVID cases and 13,193 cumulative probable cases with 49.37% of the population being fully vaccinated
• About 43,000 members and 27,000 dependents are enrolled in Nevada's Public Employees' Benefit Program
• It is expected to underwrite roughly $18.4 million in annual testing costs, which is estimated to total between $12.3 million and $24.7 million

Nevada will become the first state to charge unvaccinated state workers enrolled in public employee health insurance plans. 

Board members of the state Public Employees' Benefit Program voted on Thursday to charge unvaccinated workers up to $55 per month to balance out the costs of COVID testing and hospitalizations.

A $175 monthly surcharge will also be included for any unvaccinated adult dependents enrolled in the benefit program.  

The surcharges for state workers and adult dependents on their plans will go into effect in July 2022, unless members provide proof of an approved exemption. 

As of Thursday, Nevada has recorded 417 new daily confirmed COVID cases and 13,193 cumulative probable cases. The state has reported 49.37% of the population is fully vaccinated. 

Officials said COVID-related claims filed by state workers were on track to surpass $6 billion in 2021. By charging state workers and their dependents age 18 and older, the plans will help offset the cost of testing people who refuse to be vaccinated.

Laura Rich, the benefit program´s executive officer, said while some public sector plans in the country have imposed surcharges on unvaccinated employees, Nevada would be the first state to impose a systemwide surcharge on public employee plans.

She compared the premium to a smoking surcharge and said it would help underwrite roughly $18.4 million in annual testing costs, which is estimated to total between $12.3 million and $24.7 million. 

About 43,000 members and 27,000 dependents across the Silver State are enrolled in the Public Employees' Benefit Program. Nevada estimates roughly 5,000 state workers and 1,250 employees of the Nevada System of Higher Education are unvaccinated. 

'This is pandemic has been shouldered on the burden of everyone. And now this particular burden - the testing - should be shouldered on the burden of those who refuse to (be vaccinated),' DuAne Young, Gov. Steve Sisolak's policy director said.

Since the start of the pandemic, public sector plans have covered all COVID-related testing and treatment for state workers. Though many other plans stopped completely covering testing when vaccines became widely available, insurance plans for state workers have continued to pay for it in entirety.

In Nevada workplaces where less than 70 per cent of employees have gotten shots, employees are required to undergo weekly COVID testing.  

President Biden announced that the White House will require all companies that employ 100 or more workers to have their employees be fully vaccinated or submit to weekly testing starting January 4, 2022.

Although Biden's workplace mandates face court challenges, if they go into effect, the policy would significantly increase the state's healthcare spending.

With thousands of unvaccinated workers, Rich said administrators had to decide the extent to which tax dollars should pay for the medical costs of those who chose not to get vaccinated.

'PEBP is largely a taxpayer-funded plan outside of employee premiums,' she said. 'Since we do not have the ability to adjust the state subsidy portion outside of a legislative session, we have no choice but to look at other options.'

The state hopes that incentives and penalties like the surcharge will convince more people to get vaccinated, Rich said. 

The surcharge presented liberal-leaning labor unions with a dilemma. It pit a policy intended to encourage vaccination against increasing healthcare costs for workers - a longtime centerpiece of their advocacy. Labor lobbyists from the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees and the Nevada Faculty Alliance testified in neutral about the surcharge proposal.

Tom Verducci, a board member who represents state workers' deferred compensation plans, voted against the surcharge and said opposed the idea of imposing additional costs on workers regardless of the reason.

'State employees have been hit very hard with no raises over a number of years. And I think of the soul out in the Lovelock working for the Department of Corrections, paid $800 a month in a trailer with three kids. I have a hard time with this one,' he said.