The Vermont School Boards Association has released a report that finds taxpayers could save as much as $39 million statewide if teachers move from their current health plans to the "gold" plan offered by Vermont Health Connect. But the teachers’ union calls the report simplistic and damaging to teachers’ pocketbooks.
The report, “Financial Impact of Health Care Reform on Vermont School Districts,” notes that the most recent data from school year 2012-13 shows $272 million in benefits was paid to full-time school employees. About $173 million of that was health insurance premiums paid by the school districts for their employees. It estimates districts will pay nearly $202 million in 2015, 22 percent of the payroll.
The report offers three scenarios based on the plans offered by Vermont Health Connect — the state’s health care exchange — and the financial implications if districts moved insurance to the state coverage.
The Vermont School Boards Association commissioned the report, according to Executive Director Stephen Dale, with the intent to provide information about costs and potential savings as the state converts to a different health care system. “We think that people can end up with very good coverage and there can be substantial property tax savings. But it will take the willingness to be creative and look at all of the options. So we’re just trying to call attention to the fact that these savings are there and that we need to make sure that property tax payers get full consideration of how this is all going to play out.”
The Executive Director of the National Education Association's Vermont chapter says the report’s scenarios would mean sharply higher out-of-pocket medical expenses for teachers.
Vermont NEA Spokesman Darren Allen says the report states the obvious in that you will always save money if you reduce employee benefits. “The thrust of this report is basically advocating a race to the bottom. It’s basically saying as public employees your benefits should be driven lower and lower and lower. Both health care and how we pay for it and education taxes and how we allocate them need to be looked at and they need to be looked at together. But the notion that the way to give property tax relief is to take it out of the hides of the men and women teaching our children is patently offensive to us. Teachers are taxpayers too.”
The Ethan Allen Institute is a conservative think tank in Vermont. President Rob Roper says it’s ironic that the union is upset when it supports a move to a single-payer system. “The teachers currently have what is called Platinum Plus health care benefits. That means that their plan is better than anything that is offered in the exchange. So what this is suggesting is that you take away the teachers’ Platinum Plus health care benefits. And doing so would save about $39 million for the taxpayers. Now that is a $39 million deduction in the quality of the health care benefits that the public school teachers currently have. I’d have a hard time believing that the teachers’ union is going to just roll over and accept that the benefits that they’ve been fighting for will be slashed.”
