New Teaching Contract

[Irulan]

Um, yeah. And you were wondering why people are talking about the cost of health care?

[Jen12]

Well, as a substitute teacher, I don't get benefits at all, so I pay out of pocket for my insurance.
The system is preposterous. I was looking into dental and you can't really get individual dental insurance. You have to be on a group plan to get some type of coverage. It needs an overhaul system-wide. Teachers aren't the only people getting the short end of the stick.

[girlontheroad]

I am self employed and got to learn all this last year when my cobra coverage ran out. Crankin one thing that saved me was that my state requires if you can't get coverage elsewhere which I couldn't because of pure existing conditions at the time, and you are just coming off an employers plan the company has to offer you one to two plans that are comparable to your previous coverage. The key is not to let it lapse. That allowed me to have similar coverage when other options were not available to me. It currently costs me $1200 a month but the benefits are good. A very nice person told me about this requirement on the phone when they told me they couldn't cover me or I would have been in trouble. The thing that floors me about insurance is the difference in negotiated costs it gives you. I just had major surgery that the hospital charged $60,000 for and which they accepted about 7,000 for with the negotiated rates. Had I not had insurance I would owe the whole $60,000. As opposed to my max out of pocket of $6000. And that was just the hospital bill. My insurance premiums more than paid for themselves this year even with the increase but the whole thing seems like a scam when you look at what gets paid. And I realize how fortunate I am to be able to pay the premiums.

[Veronica]

I started this thread to kind of work for myself how I felt about this new contract since I have to vote on it. Much of my resentment is towards my union - they insist teachers at a site all be treated the same, regardless of performance. We have years of testing data to look at and some teachers just stink at their jobs. They continue to teach as if we have the clientele we had 15 years ago and refuse to adapt. It's likely that because of the school's declining test scores, we're going to start receiving the "assistance" of coaches which means an increase in meetings and paperwork for all of us, including the few teachers whose test scores are not declining. Yet this same union thinks this variance in benefit compensation is fine. And yes, I do resent those teachers who refuse to adapt and whine every time we have any sort of staff development designed to help them becoming better at engaging their students.

We'll never get anything into the contract about teacher performance unfortunately.

Since the change in benefit compensation really doesn't affect me, I've come to the conclusion to not let it affect my voting decision. I appreciate hearing from all of you about how important good health insurance really is. I've had the good fortune to have no significant health issues and since I'm on Thom's plan, I never really paid attention to how much we pay.

Veronica

[Crankin]

Veronica, I felt exactly the same way. I ended up going from a right to work state where the union was just something I could say no to (and I was also part of a merit pay program) to a highly unionized and politicized teaching force. Usually, I am a true blue Massachusetts liberal, but these teachers sickened me for the same reasons you state. They just hated the kids, couldn't deal with working with kids from different cultures and viewed anything innovative as "extra." Well, they mostly left or retired and I stayed. When I left in 2007, I was one of the oldest teachers in the school, and I had only been there 9 years. What scared me was that a few of the younger teachers were taking up the "cause." I would have gladly accepted the chance to have my pay based on my performance. My kids' test scores were always the highest in grade 7 English. What other professional job has the same pay for everyone, irregardless of their performance?

[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.

[Irulan]

I'm not resentful. I accept our options and choices, and am grateful that we can afford to fill the holes ourselves. I do think the system is totally f-ed up; the disparities and inefficiencies are down right terrifying. I think it's important for everyone to be aware of what is happening out there. I know this is sliding into the dreaded political territory.

[Crankin]

I just feel lucky. I am not resentful. But, I don't know how to fix the problem any differently. I guess I am also lucky that I live in a state where 98-99% of the people have coverage. What I have found is that there are some people, usually in a "low risk" category, as far as their health goes, who have chosen to not get insurance through the Mass Health Connector and they basically just pray they don't get sick. These are people who are working, usually in their 20s-30s, in no benefits jobs. They don't want to pay for the 200.00-300.00 a month for a moderate coverage plan. They can afford it, but it eats into their disposable income. My son was in this position. We insisted he pay for insurance, and then after 3 years, he let it lapse. For 2 years, he had no coverage and he did have 2 medical things where he ended up paying a good amount out of his pocket. These weren't life threatening things, but, you can see how it could have easily snowballed. Believe me, benefits were a very big part of his decisions in taking the next job, and the one he just got in November. His wife's employer offers terrible benefits and she finally went on his plan. I am not sure what her reasoning was not to do it in the first place, but they are starting to think about maybe having kids and she's been going to the doctor, doing proactive things, now that she has insurance.
This shouldn't vary so much from state to state, but I am not going to get into the political aspect of it.

[Pax]

Monetarily it seems to be a toss up in my life, I have typically worked jobs with excellent benefits but very poor pay. Someone mentioned $1200 a month for healthcare? That is well more than half of my pay for a month.

Seems like "good benefits" come with an indentured servant component, even if I wanted to leave my job and try my luck elsewhere I can't because of the cost of healthcare.

Don't you gals wonder how many wonderful entrepreneurial ideas out there are withering on the vine,] because the person with idea can't afford to risk the leap into non insured status?

[Irulan]

I'm not going to flame you for that, that for sure. I remember similar arguments way back, when i lived in Wyoming, and they were putting seatbelt legislation into play. People actually said things like, " no ones going to tell me what do, I can send my family through the windshield if I want..." (Really, not making that up)

For a thorough,non biased comparison of five Westernized capitalist countries and their variations on single payer health care systems, Frontline did a very good piece several years ago. Singapore, Germany, Japan, UK, and one other nation are compared to the US system. It's only about 50 minutes long
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontl...roundtheworld/

[lph]

Well, I guess there's a kind of bizarre logic in being allowed to send your family through the windshield if you want, as long as you pay for the ambulance, the ER and every minute of sewing them up again afterwards yourself... Justifying, quantifying and paying for the trauma to everybody else who witnessed it, friends, co-workers and family is a bit harder.

Sorry to be facetious, but it's really hard for me to get my mind around the idea that society as a whole somehow does not suffer and therefore should not care about or try to prevent bad things happening to individuals.

[Veronica]

Where does the line get drawn at the role of government in protecting individuals from themselves? How much power do you want to give your government over you?

Veronica

[lph]

Personally, quite a lot. For someone else, maybe not so much. I'll leave it at that.

[Crankin]

I have no problems with the government protecting us from ourselves. You can flame me for this, but it generally comes down to the old "individualist" vs. "collectivist" mentality in various cultures/countries. I get to see first hand about some of this, as my DH is a director in a US based, but multi-national company. He deals with employee situations all over the world, and believe me, it seems a lot more civilized in other places. Now, I have nothing to complain about, but as LPH says, the right to good health care should be a given.
OK, I said my piece, you can go back to your regularly scheduled conversation.

[shootingstar]

One thing for certain, when finding a family doctor, as a patient I focus on:

*convenient/accessible location
*covenient hrs.
*good rapport with the doctor: aka someone I can ask all sorts of questions and not get brushed off. And from doctor, who conveys current info.
*choice of another doctor in urgent situation, if my doctor is not immediately available

I have never spent any time or need to, figure out what sort of arrangement there is between doctor and some other party on insurance since I haven't had catastrophic/major illnesses, surgeries yet. But even if I did, it's not going to change for whatever extra out of pocket costs there will be, no matter which doctor I choose on my own in any city in any province. It will always be what the province has set for special drugs by legislation and what additional costs patient will have to pay.

Depending on the income (lower income), disability (if any) and age (ie. seniors), there may be some discounting.


Yes true, regular medical lab tests, pap test, breast cancer screening.. are not out of pocket billed. In fact, the provincial health authorities send notices to all women as a reminder. I know I've lived in Ontario, B.C. and Albera.

Depending on the province, there are some differences for certain services that a resident will have to pay if not covered by an extended employer paid health care benefit..ie ambulance services, certain drugs.

to answer :

Where does the line get drawn at the role of government in protecting individuals from themselves? How much power do you want to give your government over you?

I would want govn't to control over ...alot in the areas of health care and public safety. Example: Alberta dentists don't have a much of a fee cap on their services. It's pretty shocking to pay hundreds of dollars just for teeth cleaning and check-up. B.C. and Ontario have stronger controls on capping fees for dentists. Very different.

After working for a provincial regulatory agency on fire safety and haz mat clean-up, then at a major construction engineering project, you really do want govn't regulatory control plus follow-up inspection and fines....to protect people. The private sector will cut corners and it's pretty shocking what can happen quickly... I've seen it.


I expect our Canadian income tax rate might be different (meaning a bit higher) than some of the state income tax state rates which might account again, for some people very resistant to perceived govn't control which they tend to equate to govn't costs.