$16k or $12k per state employee or teacher seems very high for health insurance. I could see family plans being that expensive, but only some employees would have  their families on a plan. Many would have just a spouse and some would be single.

I think having employees pay a portion of health care makes sense. By paying a portion (not a fixed amount, but a percentage), employees and employers become aligned together in wanting to bring health care costs down. Employees then have an incentive to do preventative care and other measures to decrease the total cost of health care.