SALEM – Oregon lawmakers have found an additional way to trim government costs: eliminate double health plan coverage for public school workers and state employees.

The change could save $94 million in the state general fund over the next two years, according legislative budget documents. That would be on top of about $200 million of cost-cutting, such as delaying filling vacant state jobs, lawmakers already identified.

The bill to accomplish all $300 million of trims will head to the Senate for a floor vote, after the Joint Committee on Ways and Means approved it Monday. It passed on a 14-6 vote, with one Republican, Sen. Jackie Winters of Salem, joining all the panel's Democrats in voting yes.

Rep. Julie Parrish, R-West Linn, advocated for families with multiple state or K-12 school employees to be restricted to using a single health insurance plan for each family member to save money.

Parrish cited data from the Oregon Department of Revenue, showing thousands of households where state government and schools employees doubled up on health insurance coverage. Normally, when spouses both have health insurance from their employers, one of the two those policies covers most expenses for the worker, the spouse and any eligible dependents, while the second policy helps cover co-pays or other costs that remain after the primary policy has paid its share.

On Monday, Parrish called her proposal to eliminate public employees' double coverage "a step in the right direction."

She said she would also like to see the state shift public employees onto the Oregon Health Plan, which is the state's Medicaid program -- a plan fellow lawmakers did not opt to include in the bill. "The economies of scale will help keep costs down and ensure we can take care of those to whom we've pledged to support," Parrish wrote in an email.

The latest plan drew renewed opposition from the state's largest public employee union, Service Employees International Union Local 503, which already raised concerns about earlier versions. The union said benefits are part of employees' total compensation, and cutbacks in insurance would necessitate increases in other areas.

"Making changes to one part of their compensation, without regard to the entire compensation package, is not good policy," the union wrote to lawmakers.

The cost trimming bill, Senate Bill 1067, also ran into opposition during the Joint Committee on Ways and Means hearing Monday night, when lawmakers from both parties criticized a mandate in the bill for public employee health plans to pay no more than double the Medicare reimbursement for services at certain hospitals.

Some lawmakers said it was asking too much to restrict the hospital charges, after the Legislature already raised taxes on hospitals this session. Sen. Richard Devlin, D-Tualatin, said that reining in state costs is difficult.

"If our standard is always going to be cut somebody else but not me, we're never going to do much cost containment," Devlin said.

-- Hillary Borrud

@hborrud