Starting July 1, state and public employees covered by the West Virginia Public Employees Insurance Agency will pay $26 more per month for health coverage. State officials say that hike won't be the last one and are asking those PEIA covers to use health care sparingly. Restraint alone won't solve this problem, however.
Covered employees are being sent information which warns that going to the emergency room for non-emergency purposes costs $230 as opposed to the $15 charge assessed for a doctor's office visit. But the real culprit is the higher cost of prescription drugs.
PEIA officials told The Associated Press that they'd planned to spend $100 million on prescription medicines this year. Now it looks as if the total will be $105 million or more.
That problem may be eased when the state joins a multistate drug-buying pool, which is expected to begin negotiations with pharmaceutical companies for discounts this fall.