If state employees registered in public employee healthcare insurance in Nevada are not vaccinated, they will be taxed up to $55 per month. In Nevada workplaces were less than 70% of employees have gotten shots, employees are required to be tested weekly to prevent the spread of the virus.
- Votes: The state Public Employees’ Benefit Program Board voted on Thursday to charge unvaccinated workers up to $55 per month to offset the costs of testing those who haven’t gotten shots are required to undergo in certain workplaces. Surcharges for state workers and adult dependents on their plans will go into effect in July 2022.
- Pandemic: “This is pandemic has been shouldered on the burden of everyone. And now this particular burden — the testing — should be shouldered on the burden of those who refuse to (be vaccinated),” said DuAne Young, Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak’s policy director.
- Plans: Since the start of the pandemic, public sector plans have covered all coronavirus-related testing and treatment for state workers. Though many other plans stopped completely covering testing when vaccines became widely available, insurance plans for state workers have continued to pay for it in entirety.
- Survey: In Nevada workplaces where less than 70% of employees have gotten shots, employees are required to be tested weekly to prevent the spread of the virus. Although President Joe Biden’s workplace mandates face court challenges, if they go into effect, all unvaccinated workers will have to submit to weekly testing — a development that would significantly increase the state’s costs.
- Fines: Laura Rich, the benefits program’s executive officer, said some public sector plans — including for workers at the Dallas Fort Worth International Airport — have imposed surcharges on unvaccinated employees, but, to her knowledge, Nevada would be the first state to impose a systemwide surcharge on public employee plans.
