North Dakota Senate sustains governor’s veto on state health insurance bill

The Senate on Thursday morning narrowly sustained Gov. Kelly Armstrong's veto of a bill that opponents feared would allow the state to shift health insurance premium costs onto employees.

The vote to override the veto failed 31-15. The Senate needed 32 votes.

Senate Bill 2160, sponsored by Rep. Kyle Davison, R-Fargo, would have changed the state employee health care plan to comply with the federal Affordable Care Act. This change would be irreversible.

In Armstrong's veto message to the Senate, he called the state health insurance plan one of the "strongest and most useful recruitment and retention tools." He said the bill "disposes of that tool and replaces it with a more expensive alternative."

A fiscal analysis of the bill estimated the plan would cost about $6.6 million for the 2025-2027 budget cycle and more than $25 million over the 2027-2029 biennium.

The bill's sponsor, Sen. Kyle Davison, R-Fargo, said the bill was important to modernize health insurance for state employees.

A major draw of the new plan is that it would give workers more free benefits, including preventive health care services like colonoscopy screenings and mammograms. It would also allow co-pays to count toward out-of-pocket maximums.

"Senate Bill 2160 is an opportunity," Davison said. "The opportunity to increase the rate of preventive care and wellness visits, which could be to reduce spending over the long term."

A prevailing concern, however, is that the bill would allow the state to start charging premiums to employees to offset the additional cost of the plan. Under the current plan, the state cannot charge premiums.

Sen. Judy Lee, R-West Fargo, said she voted in favor of the bill in committee but that she had since changed her mind because she believes the impacts of the policy change should be studied more carefully before it is implemented.

"I visited with the governor a couple of days ago, and his concerns were that people who are affected the most have not had nearly enough exposure to what this change makes," Lee told her colleagues on the floor.