New Teaching Contract

[Veronica]

Most of the teachers at my school are really excited about our new contract. We're all getting a 3% raise and our average class sizes have been lowered slightly. But I am miffed about the benefits. I don't take the district health benefits and I receive about a third of what the district pays for a single person's health coverage as compensation. This new contract increases the amount the district will pay monthly for a single by $50, two party gets a $100 increase and a family gets a $200 while my compensation is staying the same. Apparently the amounts teachers have to pay for health insurance are ridiculous; we must be in the highest risk pool. Beginning 1/1 the district is picking up $845 a month for a single and $1200 for a family and teachers still have to pay a substantial amount of pocket.

I dislike the inequity; choosing to have children entitles you to more compensation? However, the amount required to cover them seems insanely high to me as well. BTW I chose the word entitled because that's the way it's presented in the lunchroom at work.

Veronica

[Irulan]

Welcome to the world of what people pay for health insurance. We haven't had employee sponsored benefits in over 8 years. Those rates look about right for what we'd have to pay for a standard lower deductible 80/20 plan that covers all the bases.

[Veronica]

According the lunchroom talk (basically gossip) families are still paying an additional $400 or $500. $1600 - $1700 a month for insurance is normal? Why do people have children? Good grief they're expensive!

Veronica

[Veronica]

Oh and for the record I don't care about the raise. I would have liked to see the word average taken out of class size and a hard limit of 28 students to a class. The contract now states an average of 30 instead of 32, which means there will still be classes with 32 - 34 students in them. That word average can do amazing things.

Veronica

[Irulan]

1600 - $1700 a month for insurance is normal?

As someone who pays out of pocket, yes. Now, I don't know what kind of plans these are. I live in a state where I am pretty sure insurance costs less, and if you want a "cadillac" plan, one that covers just about everything, (mental health, prescriptions, pregnancy and maybe some vision) with minimal copays, low deductible, and a low maximum out of pocket,with a reputable company such as Blue Cross, Premera, yes, that is what you'll pay for TWO people. Most people seem to want those kind of plans, $20 office visits, $5 prescriptions, etc....again, I don't know what kinds of plans you are offered. I just know that as a consumer that pays out of pocket for all of my health insurance, there's no way I could afford the full costs of those kinds of plans.So I don't have one like that. I'm pretty savvy as I've been buying our families insurance for a long time, and know what's out there from decent companies on the market, at least in my state. My belief is that if you get any employer buy in on health insurance you should count yourself lucky. I'm not trying to bum you out - i know there are certain expectations with union contracts and all that, but for the rest of us, the realities can be quite different.

[Blueberry]

I dislike the inequity; choosing to have children entitles you to more compensation? However, the amount required to cover them seems insanely high to me as well. BTW I chose the word entitled because that's the way it's presented in the lunchroom at work.

Veronica

+1000.

Health insurance is incredibly expensive, and (at least in my state) has increased astronomically in the last few months with no relief in sight. As far as the risk rating of teachers....you have told us about their eating and exercise habits

[Veronica]

+1000.

As far as the risk rating of teachers....you have told us about their eating and exercise habits

True... snickering, snorting....

Veronica

[OakLeaf]

According the lunchroom talk (basically gossip) families are still paying an additional $400 or $500. $1600 - $1700 a month for insurance is normal? Why do people have children? Good grief they're expensive!

Veronica

$1600 a month for single coverage for a female without a maternity rider is a bargain. Welcome to the real world. And wait until you hit 40.

Maybe in California they're not allowed to discriminate on the basis of sex? Even so, single coverage for males is over 70% of what females pay in "my" world.

[thekarens]

I work for a major insurance company and as an employee my deductible is $3400 with an out of pocket of $7500. I don't go to the doc unless it's very serious.

My son sees a psychiatrist once a month and a counselor once a week. The psychiatrist is covered, but it comes out of my pocket because I never hit the deductible. The counselor is not covered and that's $100 a visit (that's the discounted rate.)

Health insurance pretty much sucks no matter how you look at it,

[Irulan]

I work for a major insurance company and as an employee my deductible is $3400 with an out of pocket of $7500. I don't go to the doc unless it's very serious.

My son sees a psychiatrist once a month and a counselor once a week. The psychiatrist is covered, but it comes out of my pocket because I never hit the deductible. The counselor is not covered and that's $100 a visit (that's the discounted rate.)

Health insurance pretty much sucks no matter how you look at it,

Do you have a HSA with that plan?

[goldfinch]

I am retired without retiree health benefits. I also am not insurable so I am on the Minnesota risk pool, that can charge 5 to 25% more than equivalent insurance for a person in good health. It is one of the least expensive pools in the United States with some of the best coverage. I pay roughly $500 a month for an 80/20 in network plan, with a $5000 deductible. The drug deductible is part of the $5000 but is only $2000. I am not remembering off the top of my head what is my maximum out of pocket but it isn't bad.

My husband pays the same.

Even though we do not usually hit the deductible we have the advantage of negotiated lower prices. For example, I pay roughly $50 for a prescription that would be close to $500 if I had no insurance.

I am lucky to be a Minnesota resident and am lucky to have enough money to pay these prices. There are many states I cannot live in because there are no affordable options for me or no options at all. Some state risk pools are a total joke. High prices. Limitations on how much they will pay for a specific condition. Yearly limits. Low lifetime limits. Etc. Other states have risk pools that are closed or non-existant and the only way you can buy insurance if uninsurable is if you have HIPAA rights, coming off of a group plan. Or, you get on the new federal plan for the uninsured but you have to be uninsured for six months to do so.

(I would not call a plan a "Cadillac" plan if it covers prescriptions. Prescriptions can bankrupt a person. Look at chemo therapy drugs. I also don't consider mental health "Cadillac." Health is health. Mental health is not less worthy than physical health.)

[Irulan]

To clarify, what I meant by "Cadillac Plans" was this
-very low copay ($5-20) per visit
-low deductible (not multi thousand dollar)
--low out of pocket maximum (less than about 1k)
-full availability of prescriptions (no exclusions) for a reasonable cost
And of course coverage for everything. These plans, out of pocket, are very expensive. Anyone remember the days when plans like these were what most people got from their employers?

There are plenty of plans out there that "cover" many things, but as many of us have pointed out, the coverage has to be applied to huge deductibles, huge out of pocket maximum, and sometimes exclusions. Mental health care and prescriptions are usually the first things removed from plans to reduce the cost.

[malkin]

A couple years ago my employer switched us from a $0 deductible plan to a $3000 deductible/HSA and told us that we would now be 'empowered' in our health care decision making.

[thekarens]

Do you have a HSA with that plan?

Yes, I do and I put all I can afford on it, which is about 2k a year. Saves a little being pre tax.

[Crankin]

Yes, insurance for teachers is outrageously expensive. I had it through my employer in AZ, for just me, because, back then, it was free. I was also covered by my DH's plan, once he graduated college and had a professional job.
That said, once I moved here, I never took the school district insurance. It was outrageously expensive, although it did cover pretty much the same things my plan covered through DH's work.
We pay 294.00 a month for what Irulan called Cadillac coverage (Blue Cross PPO). My employer offers the same plan, for twice the cost to the employees. No deductibles, no referrals needed, and it includes vision care. Our dental insurance is another 44.00 a month. He works for a successful company, but I also think the risk pool has something to do with this. The average age of the employees is young and they are mostly healthy. That said, our insurance paid 100% of DH's stents and angioplasty, as well as paying 18K for an experimental procedure that DS had to cure his Raynauds, back in 2003. They also paid for all of my second opinions at Brigham and Women's back in 2007.
It's a sad fact of life that there is this inequity, but, on the other hand, my clients, who have Mass Health, also have access to most of the same benefits I have. When my older son first graduated, he bought his own insurance, through our health care connector (part of the universal care bill here) that helps working people without benefits find insurance. He paid about 200.00 a month.