Passage of this bill (1) includes an employees' spouse in retirement health and life insurance options, (2) allows retiree cash payouts to be transferred to 401K plans, (3) allows for the employee and spouse to use unused sick leave to purchase Medicare supplemental insurance, and (4) allows an employee's spouse to continue health and life coverage until medicare eligibility even in the employee has already attained that age. It is estimated that the cost for these benefit enhancements will be $304,800 from all funding sources. Future costs will vary depending on utilization of the benefits. However, any fiscal impact is to be borne by the agency thereby not requiring new state funding.

Office of the Legislative Fiscal Analyst