Insurance-rate anxiety rises for teachers

Shelley Smith’s frustration with her rising insurance costs has taken a number of forms. Last September, the Fox resident wrote an editorial documenting the disparity between premium rates for state and public-school employees. A short while later, she started a petition drive asking legislators to address skyrocketing premiums for public-school employees.

On Tuesday, she wore a neon-green shirt to a state board meeting. Depicted on its front: a mostly eaten apple, reduced nearly to its core, with the words “taxes” and “health insurance” floating in the empty space.

“I’ll be really hard to avoid looking at,” said Smith, who teaches at Rural Special School in the Mountain View School District, before seating herself in the center of a cavernous meeting room a stone’s throw from the state Capitol.

Members of a state life and health insurance board gathered Tuesday in Little Rock to review proposed adjustments to Arkansas’ health-insurance plan for public-school employees.Dozens crowded into the Arkansas Department of Finance and Administration’s Employee Benefits Division to learn more about the $61 million budget shortfall affecting the state’s health-insurance plan, and the deficit’s implications on insurance costs.

Teachers and school officials worry that the increasing cost of premiums could cripple family budgets and force them to find new jobs with better benefits. The rates and accompanying financial strain, they say, have already made working in Arkansas unaffordable for some educators. The public-school plan, which covers almost 83,000 people - 47,000 teachers, cafeteria workers, janitors, other school employees and their families - could see 44 percent rate increases beginning in 2014 if board members don’t opt to cut benefits. Another plan would adjust premiums at varying rates, leaving some to foot a larger percentage of the deficit’s load than others.

Jason Lee, director of the Employee Benefits Division, said the board will vote on the rates by August, allowing employees time to adjust their plans if necessary through October.

But representatives with the Arkansas Public School Resource Center say the clock is ticking for many teachers - they’d like to find out where their rates will stand before summer’s end. Under one scenario, premiums for a family on the state’s “gold” plan would increase about 58 percent, from $1,029.96 to $1,626.82. The scenario calls for a each employee to receive a fixed monthly contribution toward premiums of nearly $89 from the state, and a minimum fixed monthly contribution of $150 from school districts.

School employees had previously groaned about the difference in premium costs between state and public school employees. State employees are offered significantly cheaper plans because the state provides about $390 per month for their care, compared to about $89 per month for public school employees. School districts also contribute money toward their employees’ premiums. The state Legislature voted in January to increase the minimum contribution by school districts to $150, a $19increase in a year when rates for some increased by more than 20 percent.

“You have a situation where school employees need to find out if they can work,” said Katie Clifford, the Arkansas Public School Resource Center’s director of communications.

The plans go into effect Jan. 1. That’s when the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act will begin requiring most Americans to have health insurance and penalize those who don’t with a fine equal to $95 or 1 percent of their income, whichever is greater.

As they stand, all the options leave teachers with their hands tied, Smith said.

“If the EBD [Employee Benefits Division] says there’s nothing we can do about this, then the teachers and school employees across the state are going to be looking at other options,” she said. “Looking at other jobs, maybe.”

Smith, an art, Spanish and journalism teacher, drove two hours from Fox to attend Tuesday’s meeting. If her schedule allows, she said, she’ll do the same when the board convenes again today.