A bill sponsored by Sen. Rhoda E. Perry, D-Providence, to set up clinics to sell medical marijuana suffers a setback. B2

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The Providence Journal / Connie Grosch

PROVIDENCE — Rhode Island’s $13,508-a-year part-time legislators would have to start paying 10 percent of the cost of their health-insurance premiums under a bill that cleared the House Finance Committee yesterday.

A majority now get the benefit for free, or, if they have health insurance from another employer, they get a $2,002 waiver payment for giving it up, a privilege that would also go out the door if the bill makes it into law. The bill, sponsored by Rep. Amy Rice, D-Portsmouth, now goes to the full House for approval.

But while House leaders have declared themselves in support of the move, which has both financial and symbolic significance in a year when the state is facing a huge deficit and thousands face removal from state subsidized health-care rolls, Senate leaders are less enthusiastic. In a brief interview yesterday, Senate Majority Leader M. Teresa Paiva Weed explained why.

Asked about her reservations about the bill, she said she believes lawmakers show more “leadership” by contributing voluntarily to the cost of their health insurance, as she decided to do in recent weeks.

Except for Rice, no one spoke for or against her bill during the brief hearing last night, though a handful of legislators fretted that ending the $2,002 waiver payments might run up the state’s cost by spurring some legislators into taking state-subsidized insurance they are now doing without.

The full array of medical, dental and vision benefits, which currently costs the state $5,810 for an individual and $16,233 for a family, is increasing on July 1 to $6,305 for individuals and $17,620 for families.

Full-time state workers are required to contribute toward the cost of their health-insurance premiums in amounts that range from 8 percent to 15 percent, depending in how much they make. Others pay a percentage of their salaries. At last count, only 26 of the state’s 113 lawmakers — more than half of them Republican — are voluntarily paying a portion of their health-care premiums. The majority pay nothing; 21 lawmakers each get a $2,002 annual waiver payment for giving it up.

In recent days, one of the General Assembly’s public school teachers, Sen. James Sheehan, D-North Kingstown, announced he would forgo the $2,002 waiver payment in the future.

“I have reconsidered the matter this year, especially in light of the state’s dismal budgetary outlook, and have decided not to accept the insurance waiver,” he said. “Accepting the $2,002 waiver is not worth compromising my reputation in the public eye as a person who is dedicated to public service.”

But the availability of 100-percent state-paid family health coverage has enabled other legislators, including at least one former member of the House Finance Committee — Rep. Jan Malik, D-Warren — to get a waiver payment from his or her full-time employer. A liquor store owner, Malik is also the $48,000-a-year foreman of Warren’s Department of Public Works.

Depending on when they were hired, town employees are required to pay up to 15 percent — and town police officers, up to 20 percent — of the cost of their health-insurance premiums. As a longtime town employee, Malik would not have had to pay a share of his premiums. But choosing the free legislative coverage entitles him to a $4,099 waiver payment from the town — more than twice what he would have received from the state had he opted to keep his town insurance. His situation is not unique.

In February, House Minority Leader Robert Watson and several of his GOP colleagues proposed a change in the state Constitution to specifically require 10 percent co-payments by the lawmakers, an approach that would require a statewide vote next November. House Democratic leaders declared their support instead for the more direct approach that Rice — a Democrat — introduced on May 8. Her bill would end the waiver payments and require a 10 percent co-payment toward premiums.

A third version, introduced by Rep. Al Gemma, D-Warwick, would also have required a 10 percent co-payment toward the premiums, but it would exclude lawmakers receiving health benefits from one of Rhode Island cities and towns or another arm of the state government from receiving a waiver payment.

kgregg@projo.com

(An earlier version of this story incorrectly reported that Rep. Jan Malik is a member of the House Finance Committee.)