PEBB voting today to raise state worker health costs

The Public Employees’ Benefits Board is voting Wednesday afternoon on a package of health-care proposals that is going to formally drive up Washington state employees’ health care costs next year.

Workers in two-dozen unions are bound by health-care agreements that require them to pay 15 percent of base premiums in January, up from 12 percent. But other out-of-pocket costs are in the offing, too – including new $100 co-pays for Group Health participants who get MRIs, CTs and PET scans.