Editor's note: This story was originally published on February 11, 2009

His mother stricken with bone marrow cancer, Rep. Eric Hutchings watched as his parents' finances crumbled. Uninsured, the couple burned through every dollar and asset they had to pay medical bills until they eventually qualified for Medicaid.

It's an experience that Hutchings, R-Kearns, doubts many of his colleagues in the Utah Legislature will have to endure. That's because lawmakers, similar to other state employees, enjoy generous benefits through the Public Employees Health Plan (PEHP.)

Insulated from insurance problems faced by average Utahns, lawmakers may be out of touch, he fears, and are not acting quickly enough to implement real reform.

"They're going to be more effective policy makers if they're engaged in the process on a daily basis," said Hutchings, who is drafting a bill that would replace legislators' health plans with the cash equivalent of what the state pays for it. They would then be sent into the private insurance market to buy coverage on their own.

"Go in the marketplace and figure it out. Be exposed to all of the challenges, all of the setbacks, all of the restrictions," he said.

Lawmakers choosing the cheapest PEHP health plans offered in fiscal year 2009 are getting individual health coverage for a one-time, out-of-pocket premium of $91. The state pays the remaining $4,460 of the premium.

Those covering their families, meanwhile, pay a one-time sum of $251. The state pays the remaining $12,276.

Unlike their fellow state employees, however, legislators work part time -- during the 45-day session, which includes weekends, and in monthly interim meetings between regular sessions. And, unlike employees, once they reach age 65 and have served four or more years, or they've reached age 62 and served 10 or more years, they're eligible for lifetime benefits.

It's a considerably better deal than what their fellow Utahns get. Families USA, a not-for-profit consumer health advocacy organization, found that in 2007, the annual premium cost borne by individuals in the state with employer-sponsored insurance was $878, and for families, $2,771.

And they presumably work full-time, year round.

The coverage provided to lawmakers "makes us way too distant from one of the most important issues that devastates peoples' lives on a daily basis," Hutchings said.

Utah entrepreneur and former White House economic advisor Paul Zane Pilzer agrees. Last week, he circulated a letter among legislative leadership calling for a similar change after he learned Rep. Jim Dunnigan, R-Taylorsville, sponsored a bill in 2008 that limits access to the Health Insurance Pool of Utah (HIP.)

HIP offers coverage to Utahns with pre-existing conditions who have been denied a private policy and don't have access through an employer. The bill, now law, precludes people from using tax-free employer funds to purchase insurance through HIP.

Calling Dunnigan "the meanest man in Utah," Pilzer said the law is morally reprehensible and unfair to employees with pre-existing medical conditions in their family. If lawmakers were faced with the same choices for health insurance as the average Utahn, he said, they would have never passed it.

"We need to make all legislators mortal human beings -- not gods," he said.

Dunnigan defends the new law. He explained that as more employers drop their insurance plans and instead give workers tax-free contributions toward private polices, a greater number of "uninsurables" will seek coverage through HIP.

Because the state subsidizes 40 percent of HIP premiums, a sudden influx of applicants would stretch the program's finances to the limit -- it's already facing a $1.5 million cut this fiscal year -- forcing it to cap enrollment.

"No matter how you feel about it policy wise, the funding is an issue," he said. "I fight every year to get HIP funded, so those with no other alternative have a place to get coverage."

Dunnigan is an insurance broker and a member of last year's Health System Reform Task Force. He has carried health-related bills, and said booting him into the private insurance market won't make him any more capable of grappling with a broken health system.

"Many legislators certainly are already aware of the challenges," he said. "Believe it or not, they don't exist in a vacuum here. They hear from their constituents."

Hutchings, who was tweaking the wording in his bill Wednesday, said this is his second run at changing lawmakers' health benefits. Not surprisingly, a similar one last year fizzled.

lrosetta@sltrib.com