For the first time, the pool of money set aside to pay for health coverage for Hawaii’s future state and county retirees climbed to more than $1 billion in July, but fund managers didn’t have much time to savor that achievement.

The value of those reserves overseen by the Hawaii Employer-Union Health Benefits Trust Fund dipped back down to about $960 million on Monday amid upheaval in world stock markets, said Derek Mizuno, assistant administrator of the trust fund.

And despite that progress being made on pre-paying public workers’ retirement benefits, the worrisome issue of the unfunded liability for public employees’ health benefits will be around for many years to come. The combined state, city and counties’ unfunded liability for health benefits for future retirees was estimated in 2013 to be $11 billion.

For the Hawaii health fund to finally accumulate $1 billion in reserves for future obligations “is not huge percentage-wise, but I think it is is a good start,” Mizuno said. “Compared to where we were four years ago at $150 million or so, to $1 billion, that’s a lot.”

State lawmakers passed a law in 2013 requiring the state and counties to make increasing annual payments into the trust fund to pile up reserves that will be used to pay for health coverage for future retirees. For example, the minimum annual required state contribution into the fund for fiscal year 2015 was $83 million, and for fiscal year 2016 is $163.6 million, Mizuno said.

Known as Act 268, the new law established a schedule that is supposed to pay down the unfunded obligations for retirees’ future health coverage over the next three decades. That would allow the state and counties to limit their payments into the fund to cover only the current and future health benefits of active employees.

The trust fund is investing primarily in stocks, bonds and real estate investment trusts, and has been earning returns of 8.3 percent during the past four years, Mizuno said.

Assuming the state and counties stick to the plan, state consultants estimate the payments into the trust fund along with its investment earnings will allow it to amass assets of more than $40 billion by 2044, and the unfunded liability will be almost wiped out.

State lawmakers may be tempted in the years ahead to divert funding away from the trust fund to pay for other programs and projects, but Democratic House Majority Leader Scott Saiki said lawmakers are “adamant” that state agencies must pay their share of the health fund’s unfunded liability.

“The fact that it has accumulated $1 billion shows how successful this law is,” said Saiki (D, Downtown-Kakaako-McCully). “It did exactly what was intended.”

House Finance Chairwoman Sylvia Luke, who worked with Gov. David Ige to help pass Act 268 when Ige was a state senator, agreed that lawmakers will stay on course and continue to pay down the unfunded liability despite the near-term costs.

Under Act 268, the increasing annual state and county payments to reduce the unfunded liability are expected to climb over the next several years to $543 million in 2019. At the same time, the state and counties will also have to fork over another $600 million in 2019 to cover the cost of current health benefits for public workers and retirees.

That means the state and counties’ contributions for current and future health benefits is projected to top $1.14 billion in 2019 alone. That might sound like a budget-busting number, but Luke said that cost has been factored into the state’s long-term financial plan for the years ahead.

“I think as long as David (Ige) is governor, I think he has no intention of reversing what he and I worked on, and I have no intention of breaking that commitment,” said Luke (D, Punchbowl-Pauoa-Nuuanu). “It’s something that we have to do.”