Senate Democrats are looking at making state employees pay more for their health insurance to help balance the state budget.

State workers would pick up no more than 18 percent of the cost of their health insurance, said Sen. Rodney Tom, D-Medina, the vice chairman of the Senate Ways and Means Committee. The workers currently pay 12 percent of their health-care costs. Senate staff say the increase could save the state about $100 million to $200 million in the 2009-2011 biennium.

Lawmakers are looking for ways to reduce a $9 billion state budget shortfall over the next two years. Tom said the exact percentage of health costs that state employees would have to pay is still "moving by the hour."

Senate Democrats plan to release their proposed budget on Monday.

Increased health-care rates have been discussed throughout the Legislative session. If lawmakers do seek to increase employee insurance costs, unionized workers likely wouldn't see their contributions change until July 1, 2010, when their contracts expire. Non-union employees, however, could see their costs increase sooner than that, Tom said.

Dave Wasser, spokesman for the state Health Care Authority, said charging state workers different rates is a tougher than enacting an across-the-board change to all health-care premiums. He said the Health Care Authority has an antiquated computer system that can't handle varying premium rates. The computer system that has been in place since 1977 could need up to two years to update, Wasser said.

The Health Care Authority was on the verge of updating the 32-year-old computer system but had to hold off when the recession hit and the spending was halted, he said.

"If they want to do it across the board it's no problem. Where we do run into problems is the variability. It's the process of figuring out who is who and how to make those changes," Wasser said.

Tom said he understands the computer problem but is confident it can be worked out sooner than in two years.

Changes to state health-care premiums could impact more than 100,000 people.