Representative Dan Shagori introduced LD 328 on the floor of the Joint Standing Committee on Labor, asking the state to pay Medicare Part B premiums for retired state employees and retired teachers who enroll in Medicare Advantage.

The bill sponsor said the proposal targets rising out-of-pocket costs for retirees and teachers while acknowledging broader pension fixes would be far costlier. "Retirees had a rough time over the last few years, especially retired state employees and teachers," Representative Dan Shagori said. "Their benefits have simply not kept up with inflation, and many are suffering as a result." He told the committee the state protects pension increases only up to 3% on the first approximately $25,000 of a pension, a limitation he said dates to cuts in 2011.

Why it matters: Shagori told the committee that while a full correction of pension indexing would be "prohibitively expensive" ("in the hundreds of millions of dollars," he said), the state can reduce retiree costs by covering Medicare Part B premiums when retirees become eligible for Medicare. Shagori described the state's per-person insurance cost falling sharply when Medicare begins and argued part of that savings should be used to cover retirees' Part B premiums. "When a person retires before 65 ... the state pays everything. Then when they turn 65 ... they suddenly have to pay the Part B premium," Shagori said.

The presentation opened the bill for public testimony; Senator Mike Tipping, who opened the hearing, framed the session as an opportunity for the public to testify for, against, or neither for nor against bills before the committee. "The purpose of the hearing is to invite testimony from members of the public regarding proposed legislation that is pending before this committee," Senator Mike Tipping said at the start of the session.

No formal motion or vote on LD 328 was recorded during the portion of the hearing in the transcript provided. The committee clerk was acknowledged for taking the meeting live and instructions were given for submitting written testimony and for Zoom participation.

The committee will accept public testimony on LD 328 in the hearing record; no committee direction, referral, or final action appears in the recorded excerpt.