Illinois taxpayers owe $68 billion for state retiree healthcare

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The Center Square

Every Illinois household would have to pay $11,000 to cover the cost of taxpayer-subsidized healthcare benefits for retired state workers, a figure that is expected to grow, according to a new report from public finance watchdog Wirepoints.

Illinois also has more than $137 billion of unfunded pension liabilities for retired state employees. That is up more than $3.5 billion from the year before, according to the Illinois Commission on Government Forecasting and Accountability. That doesn’t include healthcare costs. Some employees who work 20 years for state government get healthcare coverage with no copays.

 

Wirepoints President Ted Dabrowski said numbers from state actuaries show the state provides 567,000 public sector workers and retirees subsidized health insurance benefits. Those getting fully subsidized benefits could cost $200,000 to $500,000 per retiree.

 

To cover the expected $68 billion in healthcare liabilities would cost each household thousands of dollars.