Strategic Public Management

CHAPTER 6 ________________________________Managing a Governmental Health Plan

Sheila Beckett

In 1975, the Texas Legislature adopted recommendations from an interim study commission that I staffed, creating a uniform group insurance program. This program offered the customary benefits provided by an employer, the largest and most expensive being health insurance. Up until then, state agencies and institutions of higher education offered health insurance plans individually. These plans varied greatly based on the demographics of each agency’s workforce and the level of appropriations made to each agency. As you can imagine, there was much inequity.

The statute passed by the legislature required that all executive, legislative, and judicial agencies ...