State Senate President Stephen Sweeney said Wednesday that legislation overhauling health care benefits for New Jersey teachers, the result of a watershed deal with New Jersey’s most powerful teachers union, could be ready by the end of the week.

Sweeney and New Jersey Education Association President Marie Blistan on Monday announced the agreement to cut more than $1 billion in costs from health insurance plans, lowering premiums paid by school districts and teachers.

The Senate president said details on the proposal, which calls for creating two new, lower-cost health plans, won’t be available until the bill is complete. The Senate hopes to put the legislation on the governor’s desk by the end of the month.

“The teachers want this to happen quickly too, which means it’s got a pretty good shot of happening pretty quick,” Sweeney, D-Gloucester, told The Star-Ledger editorial board Wednesday.

Both the Senate and state Assembly would have to pass a bill that would be signed by Gov. Phil Murphy for it to become law.

Under the proposal, the state would eliminate some existing health care plans available to teachers and introduce two lower-cost alternatives, called the New Jersey Educators Health Plan and the Garden State Health Plan.

Sweeney and the NJEA did not provide details on either the Educators plan or the Garden State plan but did say the Garden State plan would restrict teachers to New Jersey health care providers.

Both plans offer teachers the chance to pay lower premiums than what they’re paying now, which are 3 percent to 35 percent of their plan premiums, depending on their salary and policy choice.

Employees who opt for one of the two new, lower-cost plans will get the benefit of paying a lower premium determined by a percentage of their pay. New hires would have to enroll in one of the new plans.

Some of their existing health care policies will remain — Sweeney did not say which ones— and workers already enrolled will have to continue paying their high premiums if they stay in those plans.

Sweeney said that whether the districts and employees will realize the full $1.07 billion in savings — $640 million for school districts, $30 million for the state and $404 million for teachers — will depend on “how actively the teachers union pushes it.”

“I think a lot will make (the change) pretty quick," Sweeney said Wednesday. “The problem with before is no one educated their membership on what they need or they don’t need. ... Pretty much the teachers looked at the most expensive plan has to be the best, when that might not necessarily be true for the needs that you have as an individual.”

“We’re not trying to sell cheap plans,” he added. Much of the savings are derived from lower reimbursements to out-of-network providers under the new plan. Health plans for state workers already have slashed payments to out-of-network chiropractors, acupuncturists and physical therapists.

“Cutting the cost of out-of-network is huge,” Sweeney said.

Sweeney and the NJEA made for unlikely negotiating partners. He angered the teachers union a decade ago when he teamed up with then-Gov. Chris Christie on pension and health benefit cuts and then again when he backed off a promise to pursue a constitutional amendment guaranteeing state contributions into the pension system.

The NJEA in 2017 spent about $5 million backing a Republican state Senate candidate to unseat Sweeney.

Samantha Marcus may be reached at smarcus@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter@samanthamarcus. Find NJ.com Politics on Facebook.

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