SENATE SENIOR CITIZENS, VETERANS' AFFAIRS AND AGRICULTURE COMMITTEE

STATEMENT TO

SENATE, No. 794

with committee amendments

STATE OF NEW JERSEY

DATED: JUNE 20, 1996

      The Senate Senior Citizens, Veterans' Affairs and Agriculture Committee reports favorably and with committee amendments Senate Bill No. 794.

      This bill provides State-paid health benefits under the State Health Benefits Program for a retired State employee and the dependents of the employee covered under the program, but not including survivors, if the retiree is a veteran who retired from the Public Employees' Retirement System on a benefit based on at least 20 but less than 25 years of service credited in the retirement system and has attained 65 years of age.

COMMITTEE AMENDMENTS:

      The committee adopted amendments to make the bill identical to Assembly Bill No. 467(1R). The changes would: (1) specify that the term "veteran" under the bill refers to a person meeting the definition of that term under the PERS statute; (2) eliminate overlap between the class of persons covered for paid post-retirement health benefits under this bill and the class covered for such benefits under the more general provisions of N.J.S.A.52:14-17.32; (3) clarify that the requirement that a retirant have attained age 65 refers to the point at which free coverage for that retirant commences, and does not establish as a condition of eligibility for the coverage that the retirant have attained that age prior to retirement; and (4) provide that the bill will be retroactive to January 1, 1994.