Governor Butch Otter of Idaho has decreed that instead of part-time state employees receiving the same health insurance benefits as full-time employees, part-timers will have to contribute to their premiums based on the number of hours they work. Government workers are, as may be expected, upset.

As this Idaho Statesman article points out, though, Governor Otter is simply moving the state in the same direction as the private sector and other state governments. Currently, the state offers a generous plan where an employee covering only himself pays $30 a month for a health insurance policy that has a total cost of $752. That's about 4%, which is a very good deal for state employees.

Under the governor's plan, "the state is moving to a bracketed plan, where employees working 28 to 35.9 hours a week pay 20 percent of the cost of their premiums, and employees working 20 to 27.9 hours pay 40 percent of the premium." Considering the very low premiums full-time state workers pay, perhaps the governor should consider raising their rates, too. As the article points out, private sector employees in Idaho pay around 16% of their employees' premiums. There is no reason why state employees should pay 1/4 of that.