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Columbus
Dispatch...
Legislators ponder
insurance pools for schools
Requiring districts to collaborate on worker health coverage gets new
look as way to save
By Jim Siegel
Feb. 7, 2011
State leaders who are scouring the budget for cost savings soon might
have a new message for school employees: Everybody into the pool.
Mandatory health-insurance pooling for schools, a concept that last saw
heavy Statehouse debate in 2005, could be poised for a comeback. A
state board is preparing an updated cost-savings analysis, and some key
legislative leaders say that with the state facing an estimated $8
billion shortfall, the idea’s time has come.
“The situation brings us to another look at it,” said Sen. Chris
Widener, R-Springfield. The chairman of the Senate Finance Committee
led the push for health-insurance pooling six years ago.
Rep. John Carey Jr., R-Wellston, vice chairman of the House Finance
Committee, said he has talked to school-district superintendents.
“There is a lot of interest in health-care pooling and eliminating some
of the obstacles to that. With the budget cuts that are upcoming, you
are going to see more tools for school districts to manage their
dollars more effectively.”
House Republicans pushed for mandatory health-insurance pooling in
2005, but the Senate rejected it after questioning the savings, which
were projected at $656 million over four years.
School groups opposed it, and “there was extreme push-back by the
insurance companies and their lobbyists,” Widener said.
A year later, consulting firm Mercer LLC completed an analysis for the
School Employees Health Care Board, estimating savings at $30 million
to $190 million a year, depending on the level of local control and
plan choices.
More than half of Ohio school districts are part of some type of local
health-insurance pool, and the School Employees Health Care Board’s
2010 insurance-cost report suggests some savings: insurance premiums
averaged $142 a month less in districts in a pool.
Last week, the health-care board voted to work with Mercer to update
the 2006 pooling report.
“In the last two or three months, there has been increased interest in
the pooling concept,” said board Chairman Stephen Loebs. “As a result,
our board has moved as quickly as we can.”
He hopes to have new numbers ready by late February, in time for the
governor’s budget rollout in mid-March. But he warns that cost savings
would not occur right away.
Widener hopes the new numbers “bring us to the point where people may
feel more comfortable with it and acknowledge the savings.”
Darold Johnson of the Ohio Federation of Teachers said his group has
not taken a position on pooling, but he questioned how much more
savings exist. New “best practices” developed by the health-care board,
he said, have been effective at pushing districts to save money.
“I also don’t see how you abrogate all the existing contracts and move
to regional pools,” Johnson said.
Carey said there is talk of taking health insurance out of collective
bargaining, or capping a district’s share of insurance premiums at
80percent.
David Varda, executive director of the Ohio Association of School
Business Officials, said his members are growing more comfortable with
the idea of pooling. “I think the pressure is on to save money, and
that is certainly a major expenditure that has to be discussed.”
He added: “If your goal is to maximize the savings and have mandatory
regional pooling, removing it as a mandatory subject of bargaining may
be necessary.”
Widener, however, said his original intent was to not affect collective
bargaining.
Read it at Columbus Dispatch
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