Dear Colleagues -

This is an urgent message asking you to take action by submitting a Public Comment to the PEBP Board meeting scheduled for this Friday, October 2nd, at 9:00 a.m. At this meeting, PEBP will make crucial decisions about our health insurance plans for the next biennium. This analysis comes to you from our UNLV PEBP expert, Doug Unger.

The firm deadline for written comments to PEBP is Wednesday morning, September 30, at 9 a.m. This call is going out only now because state employee advocates have not seen the full PEBP proposals with sufficient time for a call to action. Written comments may be submitted at https://www.pebp.nv.gov/meetings-events/ (scroll down). 

OR: you may give oral public comment at 9:00 am on Friday, 10/2. Zoom and phone links are posted in the agenda at https://www.pebp.nv.gov/meetings-events/current-board-meetings/10-02-2026-board-meeting/

Here’s the situation: 

The PEBP Board will consider Agenda Item #8 for possible action: “Plan Design and Subsidy Considerations” (https://www.pebp.nv.gov/siteassets/content/meetings/2026/october/8.-plan-design--state-subsidization-policy.pdf).

Option A – PEBP’s plan to eliminate the HMO and EPO plans. This has been a persistent PEBP agenda very strongly resisted by state employees.  

Option B – Eliminate the HMO by making it an EPO (self-funded) – a mystery to state employee advocates why, as the EPO in the North has been historically costly.

Option C – De-couple “Actives” and “Non-Medicare” (or early) retirees.. This action might save “active” employees 4% in premiums but raise Non-Medicare retiree premiums by 27% or more (which may be a violation of Nevada Law, in NRS 287.043 which requires that Actives and Non-Medicare retirees be “comingled”). Please note that this action would be especially burdensome for state employees who often retire early under special PERS provisions because of their high stress jobs -- (Corrections Officers, State Police, Highway Patrol, Campus Police, State Fire Marshall employees, and others in these special Police/Fire positions).

Agenda Item #8 also proposes various possible shifts in employer contributions (or “subsidies”). Five sets of possible changes are proposed that either lower employer contribution percentages or radically increase costs for spouses and dependents (and even one that proposal that would eliminate state support entirely for the spouses and dependents of Non-Medicare retirees).

All these proposals are unacceptable, All these proposals would be draconian and burdensome, especially to spouses and families. And even more so when the PEBP Executive Officer and PEBP Board cannot – or will not – explain PEBP accounting discrepancies that still appear to amount to more than $100 Million between numbers presented to the 83rd Legislature and the public in 2025 and the budget, reserve, accounts receivable and liabilities that the PEBP actuaries are reporting now.

If you wish to take action, if you wish to preserve our existing health plans and benefits, here are some talking points we recommend. Pick one or two of these points and add a personal story of how these PEBP proposals would impact you:

1) Employee premiums have been sharply increased and are projected to further increase for the next two years. It is unfair to shift costs from the plan to participants, from active employees to retirees, or from employees/retirees to dependents. PEBP should instead advocate for the State to fund its share of healthcare costs in the next biennial budget.

2) Elimination of the HMO in Southern Nevada will disrupt established relationships with providers. Also, Nevada could become one of the only states in the nation not to offer an HMO plan choice for its employees.

3) Converting the HMO to a PPO plan with deductibles and 20% coinsurance eliminates a secure choice for employees willing to pay higher premiums in exchange for stability and predictability.

4) Non-Medicare age retirees who have contributed decades of service have earned and deserve comfortable retirements. We do NOT want PEBP to so radically abandon Non-Medicare retirees, raise their premiums by 27% or more, or raise costs disproportionately or eliminate entirely support for their spouses and dependents. The PEBP Board should not break Nevada’s promise to its retirees.  

5) Plan proposals that would raise healthcare costs for spouses and dependents would unjustly punish state employees with families, who are already bearing incredibly high costs for healthcare.

6) PEBP needs to come clean with a full independent audit of its finances, reserves, and rate-setting procedures. PEBP must explain the accounting mess between its budgets reported in 2025 to budgets reported this year. 

Once more, if you wish to take action, please choose one of the following:

Submit written public comment using the link at https://www.pebp.nv.gov/meetings-events/ (scroll down). Strict deadline: Wednesday, 9/30, at 9:00 am.

Give oral public comment at 9:00 am on Friday, 10/2. Zoom and phone links in the agenda at https://www.pebp.nv.gov/meetings-events/current-board-meetings/10-02-2026-board-meeting/ .