State comes up with money to avoid most of health insurance increase for school employees, if legislature will go along – Arkansas Times
The state Board of Finance had a cut-and-dried meeting yesterday that was so quick it was over by the time I tried to tune in on Zoom.
Outcome: a short-term fix was recommended to avoid huge health insurance premium increases for public school employees. Facing a $70 million deficit in the insurance fund, the legislature had earlier put $35 million into the plan. Yesterday, Education Secretary Johnny Key, no doubt acting at the direction of Governor Hutchinson, said his agency could come up with $20 million more than originally planned.
Employees are anticipated to cover the rest of the deficit, either by a $300 annual cost increase through the halving — from $50 to $25 — of a wellness credit or a $300 annual charge to those who don’t take the wellness steps.
Will the legislature accept this recommendation? A couple of leaders quoted in the account by the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette seemed amenable, but Sen. President Pro Tem Jimmy Hickey says a permanent fix on insurance is still needed.
Indeed. A unified plan for state and school employees with similar state support for all is the obvious, if somewhat costly, solution.
Politics may bail out the teachers this year They pay more for insurance than regular state employees (who include state legislators)and more than teachers in surrounding states. Arkansas provides less support than surrounding states. School districts rarely provide more than the minimum required support. The AEA said yesterday they hope they’ll pick up the $25 monthly reduction in the wellness benefit. Many districts will beg poverty.
This short-term fix, if it’s ratified, wouldn’t have happened but for the bad optics of taking away most of a modest recent pay increase from teachers by means of health insurance price gouging at a time when the state is sitting on more than $1 billion in reserve funds that the governor and legislature are anxious to give to the wealthy in an income tax cut.
An additional $20 million from the state for teachers struggling through a continuing pandemic in the face of a vaccination-resistant populace is chump change.
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