New Jersey could save hundreds of millions of dollars each year by slimming generous public worker health plans or by increasing members’ share of costs, but no other proposals would alone save enough to achieve a $200 million cut called for by language in the state budget, the state’s actuary said.

Proposals pitched by the Murphy administration to reduce costs could generate verifiable savings, said Aon, the state’s actuary, but the same could not be said of nearly every competing cost-saving proposal submitted by unions. The few labor proposals that would generate verifiable cost savings fell far short of the reduction levels called for by the budget, Aon said.

New Jersey’s public worker health plans are in distress, their premiums driven up by inflation, growing utilization, and munic

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