The great insurance debate

BASD costs are the lowest in area, even without staff member contributions

By Ed Nadolski

Editor in Chief

A comparison of nine area school districts shows taxpayers in the Burlington Area School District pay the least for health insurance for teachers and other staff, even though the district does not require staff to pay a portion of the premiums.

And while that finding may be surprising to some, it remains to be seen whether BASD’s current approach of working to control insurance costs rather than pushing them on to teachers is enough to satisfy taxpayers – many of whom philosophically believe teachers should share the burden of premiums.

BASD Superintendent David Moyer acknowledges the philosophical difference is one of the hot-button issues that triggered and continues to feed the on-going and contentious district budget debate.

However, he and School Board member Larry Anderson reject the notion that local taxpayers aren’t getting a good deal when it comes to the cost of health insurance. That contention is supported by information the two have compiled on insurance costs for eight other districts in western Racine and Kenosha counties.

“No matter how you do it, some people are going to be angry one way or another,” Moyer said. “What we’ve been trying to do is balance this over time so we don’t just cut our employees off at the knees all in one year.

“We want to do it over time to create some kind of balance between the needs of our employees and the needs of the taxpayers.”

Bonnie Ketterhagen, one of the organizers of the conservative-minded WeVoteBurlington group, said she personally believes teachers should be asked to pay a portion of their premiums for several reasons beyond tax savings.

Chief among those is to more accurately mimic the conditions under which private-sector taxpayers currently receive insurance.

She also said that when teachers don’t pay anything toward such a costly benefit, they tend to take it for granted.

“My personal experience is teachers do not understand the value of those benefits,” said Ketterhagen, a retired teacher herself.

Debate rages

Whether teachers and other public employees should be required to pay a portion of their premiums has been at the forefront of the debate statewide since Gov. Scott Walker proposed his Budget-Repair Bill a year ago.

The bill, which has since been voted into law, enables school districts and certain other public employers to ask employees to pay up to 12.6 percent of health insurance premiums.

The debate on the issue has largely been predicated on the conventional wisdom that the more staff members pay out of pocket, the less taxpayers will have to fund.

But BASD officials have turned that conventional wisdom on its ear by achieving insurance cost savings that exceed what others in the area have experienced under the new law – including some districts that are requiring teachers and other staff members to pay the full 12.6 percent premium contribution.

In comparison with the eight other area school districts – Kansasville K-8, North Cape K-8, Randall K-8, Salem K-8, Union Grove High School, Waterford High School, Wheatland K-8 and Wilmot High School – BASD had the lowest cost of insurance for both the single and family plans for the current school year.

Burlington’s single plan cost of $6,312 per employee is 46 percent lower than the average cost for the other eight districts ($9,234) and it’s family plan cost of $17,640 per employee is 22 percent lower than the average of the other districts ($21,447).

BASD achieved its savings by switching providers and increasing deductibles and co-pays, according to Moyer.

Four of the nine districts, including Burlington, do not require any premium contribution from staff members. The others are Wilmot, Union Grove and Wheatland.

Five of the districts require some level of staff premium contribution, including North Cape (12.6 percent), Randall (12.6), Salem (12.6), Kansasville (10.0) and Waterford (6.0).

Randall had the highest cost of insurance for the family plan at $25,113 per employee followed by Wilmot ($22,584) Wheatland ($22,000), Kansasville ($21,179), Salem ($20,924), North Cape ($20,456), Union Grove ($20,381), Waterford ($18,932) and Burlington ($17,640).

Information provided by BASD did not specify whether any of the other districts were still under the terms of a contract with its teachers that would have prevented imposition of premium payments.

Striking a balance

Moyer contends that by introducing higher co-pays and deductibles, BASD encourages staff members to become better medical consumers – perhaps by choosing generic drugs and office visits over name-brand drugs and emergency room visits – which could save money in the long run.

Moyer also said the district’s current approach to health insurance delivers a good value to taxpayers while preserving BASD as a teacher-friendly employer.

He noted that for the first time this school year teachers are required to pay a portion of their retirement contribution as allowed by state law. However, by increasing co-pays and deductibles for medical insurance, the district was able to realize significant savings without requiring the teachers to pay a portion of their premium, which would have further eroded take-home pay.

“We need to be sensitive to that fact,” he said, adding that the ability to attract and retain top-notch teachers is important to the district’s mission as long as it’s not accomplished to the detriment of local taxpayers.

“I want good teachers in the classroom,” he said.

In concluding, Moyer said he believes the district has done its best to strike a balance between taxpayer costs and effective staffing.

He said the door remains open to staff insurance premium contributions in the future depending on the economic pressures facing the district.

For her part, Ketterhagen said she supports teacher insurance premium contributions as a matter of fairness.

“I think everyone has to be tightening their belts (in the current economy),” she said.

Exactly what transpires on the issue for next school year will ultimately be decided by the School Board.