Is it intentional or just
a multi-million dollar mistake?
Reach your own conclusion, then click here to ask
your legislators what they intend to do about it.
Your tax dollars fund the most expensive public employee benefit: health insurance. In Maine's school districts, that employee benefit is most often a negotiation between the local school board and the Maine Education Association (MEA), better known as the teachers' union. On the MEA web site, the union states their objective with clarity and transparency:
"The MEA acts as an agent [emphasis added] for its members in meeting their health insurance and dental insurance needs. The association works to keep the MEA health and dental insurance programs used in most Maine schools at the highest coverage levels possible at the lowest cost available."
Finding the "lowest cost available", however, is not so clear or transparent for at least two reasons:
Tucked away in Maine law ( M.R.S.A. Title 20-A, Chapter 1001, Section 5A), the option to self-insure teachers for their health care coverage has been omitted from the statute. The law is silent which means the option is not permitted. Did the Legislature make a mistake and forget that group self-insurance may provide big savings?
The omission of a group self-insured health insurance option appears to be reinforced further in a different section of the statute that governs publicly funded insurance pools ( M.R.S.A. Title 30-A Chapter 117, Section 2251). The intent of this section boldly acknowledges that "The resources of political subdivisions are burdened by the securing of [insurance] protection through standard carriers." suggesting that other options should be available to control costs and provide benefits.
But the law then goes on to list the specific types of self-insurance allowed by law. Again, the law omits health insurance as an allowed coverage. Another silly mistake? Probably not. A former state legislator once attempted to correct the omission but saw her bill killed before it could draw a breath.
In an effort to offset a million dollar cut in state aid to education, one local school board recently compared their teachers' Anthem plan to an existing self-insurance plan that covers their town's municipal employees. T he town currently spends about $2 million in annual health insurance premiums to cover their teachers.
They found the benefits of the two plans to be comparable but, had their roughly two hundred teachers been covered in the competitive group self-insurance plan, the savings for the town would have been $300,000 ...per year! For every town and school district pinching pennies, this enormous savings could help minimize cutting programs, benefits and teaching positions.
So, let's do the math. Two hundred teachers represents less than one percent of the union's 25,000 members in Maine. So, if $300,000 can be saved for just one percent of the teachers through self-insurance, then statewide savings could easily exceed $30,000,000 in just one year.
If the governor and the Appropriations Committee are looking for a quick $30,000,000 in savings to close their budget gap in the next two months, they need to look no further than a simple amendment to the statute to at least allow group self-insurance as an option for teachers. Given the history of previous attempts, that may be easier said than done.
As the old saying goes, "I wouldn't be paranoid if they weren't out to get me." It's understandable why some folks are cynical about the special interests that oppose such an amendment. If a remedy is blocked, then expect to see job losses among teachers and/or higher property taxes coming your way. On the other hand, if such cynicism is completely wrong and the omission has been just a big multi-million dollar mistake, then maybe it will be fixed quickly and easily with an emergency bill submitted by the Governor. What do you think?
Now, click here to ask your legislators what they intend to do about it. Then, pass this along to your own contacts and ask them to do the same.
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You can make a difference! Thanks!
Tony Payne Executive Director
207-232-7830
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