By Joe Biesk
The Associated Press

COVINGTON - Kentucky Personnel Cabinet secretary Bob Ramsey testified before a legislative panel Monday, defending the Fletcher administration's proposal to change health insurance for state workers.

Ramsey said the proposal was necessary for the state to afford continued health care coverage for its workers.

By switching plans, the administration was also safeguarding taxpayers' financial interests, Ramsey told the Interim Joint Committee on Banking and Insurance.

"We're committed to ensuring that public employee health insurance is there for teachers, retirees and state employees," Ramsey told the panel, which was meeting at the Northern Kentucky Convention Center. "Let me also add this administration is committed to citizens of the Commonwealth of Kentucky and we will continue to ensure that the tax dollars paid to the Commonwealth are managed efficiently."

The plan, which Fletcher announced last week, is expected to raise the cost of health insurance for thousands of school and state government employees.

Lawmakers, some of whom said they had been inundated with calls and e-mails from upset voters, grilled Ramsey about the plan for more than an hour.

The total cost of the program, including employees' shares, would've grown from about $610 million this year to more than $750 million in 2005, he said.

Rep. Bob Damron, D-Nicholasville, questioned why the plan calls for only one insurance carrier in each region. Damron said he was concerned about how the plan was devised and questioned whether it would raise the cost of some prescription drugs.

"It looks like we have sat down in a smoke-filled room someplace and divided up the state among the insurance companies," Damron said. "And that creates a lot of heartburn."

Charles Wells, executive director of the Kentucky Association of State Employees, said the plan was not fair to all state workers.

Some higher-paid employees would be asked to subsidize employees who make less money. Meanwhile, others who may have to pay more in out-of-pocket expenses would be strapped to buy the insurance, Wells said.

"In effect, Gov. Fletcher has given state employees and teachers a health care plan that they cannot afford to use," Wells said.

But Rep. Danny Ford, R-Mount Vernon, said state workers' fees for their health insurance should be compared to what people pay in the private sector.

"It's not right for us to ask the taxpayers to come and pay a lot more in taxes to supplement something," Ford said. "To just sit and criticize the plan, I don't see what we accomplish."