§87A-33 State and county contributions; retired employees. (a) Notwithstanding any law to the contrary, this section shall apply to state and county contributions to the fund for:
(b) Effective January 1, 2014, there is established a base monthly contribution for health benefit plans that the State, through the department of budget and finance, and the counties, through their respective departments of finance, shall pay to the fund, up to the following:
The monthly contribution by the State or county shall not exceed the actual cost of the health benefit plan or plans and shall not be required to cover increased benefits above those initially contracted for by the fund for plan year 2004-2005. If two employee-beneficiaries are married or in a civil union, the total contribution by the State or county shall not exceed the monthly contribution for a supplemental medicare family or non-medicare family plan, as appropriate.
(c) The base composite monthly contribution shall be adjusted annually, beginning January 1, 2026, by increasing the base composite monthly contribution in effect on January 1, 2025, by 5.2 per cent. Thereafter, the adjusted base composite monthly contribution for each new plan year (January 1 until December 31) shall be calculated by increasing or decreasing the base composite monthly contribution in effect through the end of the previous plan year by the percentage increase or decrease in the medicare part B premium rate for the previous plan year, which percentage shall be calculated by dividing the medicare part B premium rate in effect at the beginning of the previous plan year by the rate in effect at the beginning of the year prior to the previous plan year.
As used in this subsection, "medicare part B premium rate" means the rate published in the Federal Register each year on November 1 or on the business day closest to November 1 of each year after the medicare part B premium rate has been established by the United States Secretary of Health and Human Services and approved by the United States Congress.
(d) If the board adopts a rate structure that provides for other than self and family rates for the health benefit plans, the base monthly contribution for the rate structure adopted by the board shall be adjusted to provide the equivalent underwriting cost as the base monthly contribution that is provided for in this section. [L 2001, c 88, pt of §1; am L 2003, c 111, §2; am L 2007, c 26, §1; am L 2012, c 38, §1; am L 2013, c 282, §1; am L 2019, c 51, §4; am L 2025, c 54, §1]