North Carolina state employees pay as little as $36.76 a month for 2027 coverage in the State Health Plan, and the choice has to be made by November 6. That price belongs to the Standard PPO plan, covering the subscriber alone, in the lowest salary band, according to the plan’s 2027 premium rate sheet for active subscribers. The same sheet shows how quickly the monthly bill climbs once a spouse or children are added.

The 2027 rates by salary band

The rate sheet covers January 1 to December 31, 2027, and lists the employer share for active subscribers at $745.44 a month. For the subscriber-only tier, the premium depends on salary. On the Standard PPO plan it is $36.76 for a subscriber earning under $50,000, $52.52 from $50,001 to $65,000, $68.28 from $65,001 to $90,000 and $84.00 above $90,000. The PLUS PPO plan costs more in every band: $69.32, $98.72, $128.12 and $168.04.

Where the bill jumps: spouses and children

The sheet is explicit that “salary-based rates apply only to the subscriber-only tier.” Other tiers carry the same pattern, with a smaller spread between salary bands. A subscriber plus children pays $194.28 on the Standard PPO plan in the lowest band and $289.84 on the PLUS PPO plan. Adding a spouse moves the Standard PPO premium to $603.76 in that band and the PLUS PPO premium to $783.32. The family tier carries the same dollar amounts as the spouse tier in every band shown on the sheet.

That makes the headline number a floor. A state employee earning less than $50,000 who covers only themselves pays $36.76; the same employee covering a spouse pays $603.76 on the Standard PPO plan, which is $567.00 more each month.

For a state employee wondering which North Carolina plan costs least at a given salary, the answer on the rate sheet is the Standard PPO plan in every tier and every band. The decision window is open now: the State Health Plan’s open enrollment page says enrollment is “taking place Oct. 12 – Nov. 6, 2026 for the 2027 benefit year,” and members enroll through the plan’s eBenefits system. The plan is also running a free informational webinar for active and non-Medicare members on Tuesday, October 13, from 4 to 5 p.m. Eastern, with registration required.

Retirees in the State Health Plan who are on Medicare face a separate November 6 choice among three 2027 plans, and a wrong pick locks in a year of premiums and drug costs. The 2027 Medicare Open Enrollment Decision Kit includes a cost calculator spreadsheet that compares plans on cost, drugs and doctors, and the Open Enrollment calendar.

Compare Medicare plans with the Open Enrollment cost calculator before November 6 →

Medicare retirees choose from a different list

The rates above are for active subscribers, not retirees. The plan’s page for Medicare-eligible members lists three 2027 options: the Humana Medicare Advantage PPO and Prescription Drug Base Plans, the Humana Medicare Advantage PPO and Prescription Drug Enhanced Plans, and the 70/30 Plan, administered by Aetna. Medicare-eligible members who are in the 70/30 Plan and take no action “will be moved to the Humana Medicare Advantage Base Plan for 2027.”

The same page gives a Medicare Support Center number, 833-429-5003, and says representatives can answer questions and explain options but cannot enroll anyone in a different plan. No 2027 premium dollar for the retiree plans appears in the material cited here, so retirees have to get that figure from the plan itself before deciding.

The yearly cost and the closing date

The lowest figure works out to about $441 over a year, and the highest Standard PPO figure, $84.00, comes to $1,008. The gap between the two plans is $32.56 a month in the lowest salary band, and it widens to $84.04 a month in the top one.

The plan’s open enrollment page names a single closing date, November 6, and the webinar listing repeats the same Oct. 12 to Nov. 6 window. Neither page says what happens to an active employee who takes no action during open enrollment, so an employee unsure whether current coverage carries over should ask the plan before the window closes. Phone contact for general questions on the open enrollment page is 855-859-0966.

Comparing the plans before November 6

The State Health Plan’s own site, shpnc.org, is the free place to start, and it carries the rate sheet, the enrollment pages and the webinar registration. A useful comparison begins with the tier, since the covered people matter more to the monthly bill than the plan name: subscriber only, subscriber and children, or subscriber and spouse.

Next comes the salary band. Only the subscriber-only tier changes with pay, so an employee near a boundary such as $65,000 or $90,000 can check which side of the line the figure on the pay stub falls. Then comes the plan itself: the Standard PPO and PLUS PPO plans differ in monthly premium, and the rate sheet does not list deductibles or other costs, so those numbers have to come from the plan’s plan pages before the premium difference means anything.

The dollar amounts in this story come from the State Health Plan’s 2027 active-subscriber rate sheet, and the deadline comes from its open enrollment page.

A November 6 choice for Medicare retirees

A State Health Plan retiree on Medicare who ignores the November 6 window can end up in a different plan: 70/30 members who do nothing are moved to the Humana Medicare Advantage Base Plan. The 2027 Medicare Open Enrollment Decision Kit lays out the choice with a prescription-by-plan comparison and a provider call script, so a keep, switch or wait decision has a written reason behind it.

Check drugs and doctors plan by plan in the 2027 Medicare decision kit →

This article was produced with AI assistance and edited for accuracy against the sources linked above.