State employees: health benefits.

Existing law requires the Board of Administration of the Public Employees' Retirement System to approve health benefit plans, to contract with carriers offering health benefit plans, and to administer a program to provide health benefits to state employees. Existing law requires the state and each employee to contribute a portion of the cost of providing the benefit coverage afforded under the approved health benefit plan in which the employee or annuitant is enrolled. Under existing law, enrollment in a health benefit plan serves as authorization of the deduction of the contribution from the salary of an employee. This bill would authorize an employee to elect not to enroll in a health benefit and to elect to be paid the contribution that the employer would have made toward the cost of benefits.