Florida TaxWatch warns Florida’s employee health insurance trust fund could be exhausted if changes aren’t made

One of Florida’s most active government watchdog groups is recommending the state revise its treatment of chronic conditions to save the state employees health insurance trust fund and keep it solvent in the next five years.

Florida TaxWatch^[1] issued its “Interdisciplinary Pain Management^[2]” report in the past week and the detailed analysis is advising the state to change its Employees Health Insurance and State Group Insurance Program (SGIP^[3]). The report advised the Trust Fund could face a $1.7 billion shortfall by fiscal year 2029-30 if no changes are made.

The latest report is a follow up to a January report “Solvency of the State Employee Health Insurance Trust Fund^[4].”  TaxWatch President and CEO Dominc Calabro said the state needs to start taking the issue seriously.

 “In Florida TaxWatch’s January 2025 report entitled ‘Solvency of the State Employee Health Insurance Trust Fund^[5],’ we recommended the Legislature increase the contribution amount or percent for health insurance to be more consistent with that paid by other large public and private employers,” Colabro said. “This would shift more of the annual employee health insurance annual premiums to the employee and would result in annual savings of $446 million for the state and its hardworking taxpayers. It would also give state employees more incentive to take responsibility for improving their health and control costs. This is a good start, but it does not go far enough.”

The latest analysis concluded the Florida SGIP has about 171,000 subscribers and covers about 350,000 people. The report found that chronic pain and high-impact chronic pain are the most common reason why people seek medical care. The TaxWatch report found Florida could reduce Health Insurance Trust Fund expenses if the sate simply changed how it treats chronic pain and use interdisciplinary pain management. That could reduce costs and drive down the need to tap the trust fund as much as it’s being used currently.

“In this follow-up report, Florida TaxWatch explores the implementation of an interdisciplinary pain management program to mitigate the consistent increases in healthcare costs for those with complex chronic pain enrolled in the State Group Insurance Program,” said TaxWatch Executive Vice President and General Counsel Jeff Kottkamp. “Reducing the costs of health care will reduce the likelihood that the Legislature would have to increase premiums paid by state employees, their dependents, and retirees enrolled in the SGIP. Our dedicated state employees and hard-working taxpayers deserve nothing less.”