Milwaukee Superintendent Thornton announced that Milwaukee Public Schools will not have to lay off any teachers for this coming school year. He attributed this to unexpected savings in healthcare expenditures by the district.
Around the state, school districts have been reeling from the skyrocketing health insurance costs. In the crosshairs of many districts is the requirement through negotiations that their school districts purchase health insurance from the teacher union sponsored WEA Trust.
Let us set the record straight. MPS has never, and I mean never, had insurance from the WEA Trust. The sign on the union building across from Milwaukee’s central administration building that says “WEA Trust” refers to the other savings plans that teachers can individually purchase through payroll deductions.
Milwaukee Public Schools self-insures its health plan and has used various companies to administrate the coverage: Blue Cross-Blue Shield, Aetna and United Healthcare, to name a few. The WEA Trust has never bid on administration of the MPS plan because the Trust has never participated in administrating self-insured plans.
But no matter what the plan or system used, the key to holding down the costs comes from the utilization by the employees. Some employees go to the doctor too often, some too little, some use the hospital emergency room as their primary care provider. Some don’t take care of themselves, eating too much, eating the wrong things, smoking, drinking too much, never getting any exercise and generally ignoring their health.
Poor health hurts the school district in other ways. Teachers are likely to take more days off requiring that the district hires more substitute teachers. Teachers in poor health are likely to do a poorer job of teaching.
So the goal of the district’s health insurance plan should not be just to keep the costs down but also to improve the health of its employees for the good of the school system.
The local teachers’ union, the MTEA, had been a key partner in this endeavor. It was the MTEA that proposed a wellness program be instituted into the health insurance program. The MPS administration now credits the union’s foresight in this area because the program has saved the district money and cut the number of days employees miss work.
Whether you support or oppose the federal Affordable Healthcare Act, there are provisions within the act that everyone should support that will cut health care costs to the school district. Everyone who pays health insurance is really paying a portion of the cost for the health care of those who lack insurance. As more people are covered, employees like MPS will be paying less for the uninsured.
More can be done. Local governments could combine into a single health insurance program dramatically cutting costs, saving the taxpayers and redirecting more funds into education.
It is important to realize little of the insurance savings within MPS was caused directly by Act 10, the provision that requires public employees to pay a portion of their health insurance. The MPS teacher contract continues for one more school year before the provisions of Act 10 kick in. The savings this round principally came through collective bargaining.
With or without health insurance being part of collective bargaining, the employees will have to see a personal benefit to proper health care utilization if we are to see continued savings. That means the district will have to engage its employees, if not through traditional collective bargaining, then through meaningful dialogue. There is no other way.
