Move to have staff pay more of their premiums is rejected by board
By Jennifer Eisenbart
Staff Writer
Burlington Area School District officials got exactly what they aimed for in figuring health insurance costs for the 2013-14 school year – a zero percent cost increase.
But while the district may have hit its goal, there remained a vocal minority Monday night that wanted to see staff start paying something toward their health insurance premium costs.
The proposed health insurance – which has the district switching from Humana to the Wisconsin County Association Health Care Trust, but keeping the two-tier plan and installing a base dental plan – passed by a 6-1 vote of the School Board. Earlier in the evening, the Personnel Committee had unanimously recommended the plan.
The lone dissenting vote came from Roger Koldeway, though Phil Ketterhagen had backed a failed amendment to the motion to have district staff start paying 3 percent toward their premium.
The School Board had received good news back in April that competitive bidding had ensured the district would have no premium increase, and could actually be looking at savings depending on which program they picked.
However, Dan Martin of Hausmann Johnson Insurance said that while bidding kept the process competitive, sticking with Humana – which had dropped its premium increase to zero after seeing the other bids – could eventually result in little to no savings through bidding.
That may have played a part in the district choosing to switch to the WCA HCT. The group would also offer the two-tier program the district currently offers: a base high-deductible health savings account program, and a possible “buy up” to the PPO plan, which involves lower deductibles but co-pays.
The different between the two plans, which the district requires employees to pay, is 11.2 percent of the premium cost.
Finally, the WCA HCT guaranteed that premiums would not rise more than 12 percent.
Both programs have the same coinsurance rate, though – 100 percent coverage in network once the deductible is reached, and 70 percent out of network.
School Board member Roger Koldeway asked Martin to go back and look at what savings could be realized if the district switched to 90/10 split on the in-network costs, and a higher maximum out-of-pocket cost (raised by $500 for single coverage and $1,000 for family coverage) than the deductible – which had previously been the same.
The district would have realized between a $108,000-$160,000 savings (depending on whether the coinsurance change was applied to just the HSA or both plans) with Humana and between roughly $73,600-$119,400 with WCA HCT.
Aside from confirming that what staff had already paid toward their deduction would transfer, and that the in-network providers were remaining the same (and actually expanding in some places), the discussion came back to cost once again.
Ketterhagen said if the district stayed with Humana and went with the 90/10 co-insurance in network, savings could be realized. Koldeway, meanwhile, wanted to see district employees start to feel the same pressure private sector employees do.
“Everyone’s being hit with insurance (costs),” Koldeway said. If staff started paying something toward that cost, “I think that’ll make the taxpayers feel better.”
School Board member Larry Anderson asked if that savings would be put toward raises to help staff pay for the addition cost to them.
“That’s hard to say,” Koldeway said. He also said that the board was discussing health insurance at this point, not raises.
However, for some of the district staff in attendance, the two were part and parcel.
“People look at it as a total compensation model,” said BHS teacher Josh Dow. “The average person does look at it as one package.”
BHS math teacher Karen Brennemann also pointed out that the loss would hit the staff psychologically.
“Is it really worth it?” she asked.
The district recommendation had one caveat. While the plan design changes have realized savings for the district on its premiums, that may not hold true in coming years. If the premiums do rise, then the district will have to revisit plan design and the idea of employees paying something toward the premium.
The district is also switching to a two-tier dental plan, with a base plan that employees can “buy up” from. That is to avoid the discrimination clause in the Affordable Care Act that would result in penalties.
Previously, the district had one plan for teachers and another for other staff. Now, all staff will have a plan that pays a maximum of $1,000 a year toward costs, with an option to pay the difference in premium ($5 for single, $11 for family) to buy up to a $2,000 maximum plan.
-
-
-
-
-