Unvaccinated Nevada state workers to pay insurance surcharge
CBSN
Nevada will be the first state to charge state workers enrolled in public employee health insurance plans a surcharge if they aren't vaccinated.
The state Public Employees' Benefit Program (PEBP) Board voted on Thursday to charge unvaccinated workers up to $55 per month to offset the cost of testing that those who haven't gotten shots are required to undergo in certain workplaces.
"This pandemic has been shouldered on the burden of everyone. And now this particular burden — the testing — should be shouldered on the burden of those who refuse to (be vaccinated)," said DuAne Young, Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak's policy director.
Ashley White received her earliest combat action badge from the United States Army soon after the first lieutenant arrived in Afghanistan. The silver military award, recognizing soldiers who've been personally engaged by an attacker during conflict, was considered an achievement in and of itself as well as an affirming rite of passage for the newly deployed. White had earned it for using her own body to shield a group of civilian women and children from gunfire that broke out in the midst of her third mission in Kandahar province. All of them survived. She never mentioned the badge to anyone in her battalion.