There is no question that America's healthcare system is terribly broken. It is literally destroying lives and bankrupting hard-working Americans while burning out dedicated but massively over-worked medical professionals. Sadly, instead of doing anything about this, we are struggling to just keep our democracy together. The last major "healthcare" legislation did little to actually provide healthcare and instead focused on bolstering our despicably unethical health insurance system. Tiny stop-gaps since then (like laws that allow us to purchase American-made drugs through Canada) have done almost nothing to deal with the skyrocketing problem. Healthcare should not be just for the wealthy.
Our school district employees are just about to get hit by a double-whammy for at least the next four months, with employees with spouses and children getting hit even harder come January. Sadly, most are unaware of the cost that will hit their paycheck at the end of this month. Due to what I feel was mismanagement and misrepresentation, district employees will be hit not only with the annual increase (which already was a rough 7.1% increase) but a redistribution increase due to the upcoming change in January to the discriminatorily unfair tiered payments. To put this in numbers, last year employees paid $487.39 a month for the nine months of the school year. Had the 7.1% increase been evenly distributed throughout this school year, employees would be facing a monthly fee of $524.75 for the nine months. Instead, because of the upcoming reorganization in January, employees will have to instead pay $590.34 for the last four months of this calendar year (an over 17% increase).
If the employee is married and has children, they will receive the further indignity of a monthly increase to $633.43 for the remaining five months of the school year (an increase of over 17% from what would have been an equal distribution and a 22% from the previous year). Now supposedly, this "finally" makes our insurance system “fair” for those who are not married or do not have children as a single employee will see their monthly rate decrease to $197.95 for those five months (employee + children and no spouse pays $376.10 [$178.15 more] while employee + spouse and no children pays $435.48 [$237.53 more]—note that these numbers should have made it so employee [$197.95] + spouse [$237.53] + children [$178.15] pays $613.63, but being stiffed the additional $19.80 a month is only the rotted cherry on the top of this turd sundae). What people don’t realize is that this situation gets even worse next school year for married employees who have children as the four month across-the-board payment up through December shielded them from the full cost which would have hit them and will hit them next year unless serious action is taken. Even if there is no increase to the overall price of insurance next year, married employees with children are looking at a monthly payment of $703.82 (an increase of over 38% from the 2021-2022 school year) for the nine months of the 2023-2024 school year [note: I have since realized that the percentage should have stated at least a 44% increase].
To be clear, this is after families were already penalized in the high deductible plan that was part of the previous contract negotiations.
People have said: “But the union voted for a tiered structure …” Mobs don’t always make the best choices especially when they are not given the full information.
People have said: “But many workers are on tiered systems …” Exactly, and look how their healthcare has turned out. Worse, we are on a system with an EXTREMELY limited pool of individuals, further dividing that pool (especially giving people more incentive to leave it) will only raise the overall cost even more (and for everyone) in a few years.
People have said: “It isn’t fair that single employees had to pay the same amount …” 1) You clearly do not understand how insurance systems work. They require people who will not be taking funds out of the pool to contribute to it. 2) This same logic would suggest that sick individuals should be paying higher premiums, something that we shield them from. 3) As noted above, the employees with families were already shelling out more for the high deductible plan. 4) People whose jobs are dependent on children being in the community SHOULD NOT being penalizing their employees for having children.
People have said: “You’re just mad because you will have to pay more because you have a spouse and children …” The truth is that I am going to save money due to this plan. Its huge cost makes it so it is more than worthwhile to drop my wife and children from my plan and add them to the one she has through her job. I will be paying that nice little $197.95 a month plus the significantly smaller amount for Janelle’s family insurance (I can’t switch to it due to a costly provision in her company’s plan) and then each of us will have our own employer contribution-based HSAs.
And here’s the real kicker: I’m the main user of insurance in my family; we hardly ever have to use it for Janelle and the boys, but I frequently go past the deductible. Thus, I will still be drawing money from the pool while contributing less. If I’m not the only one to do this, EVERYONE’s costs are going up due to the shrinking income.
To be clear: I will BENEFIT from this change, and I am still speaking out against it. Why? Because it is bad for my friends who do not have the options that I have, and it is bad for any educator who wants to have a family (especially for our paraprofessionals who are struggling enough already). Thus, it is bad for our entire school family.
Why didn’t I say something before? I DID. I argued this at multiple levels through the union before the vote. As a union representative, I had to tell people that the union recommended that we vote “yes” on the contract, but I told people that I was personally voting “no” and that I would be glad to tell them why. Sadly, few people even showed up to the informational meetings, let alone wanted to spend more time listening to me.
My warning now is: unless something significant changes, it is going to get much, much worse. Sadly, I don't think that people will understand what I mean until they see it in their paychecks.
Our school district employees are just about to get hit by a double-whammy for at least the next four months, with employees with spouses and children getting hit even harder come January. Sadly, most are unaware of the cost that will hit their paycheck at the end of this month. Due to what I feel was mismanagement and misrepresentation, district employees will be hit not only with the annual increase (which already was a rough 7.1% increase) but a redistribution increase due to the upcoming change in January to the discriminatorily unfair tiered payments. To put this in numbers, last year employees paid $487.39 a month for the nine months of the school year. Had the 7.1% increase been evenly distributed throughout this school year, employees would be facing a monthly fee of $524.75 for the nine months. Instead, because of the upcoming reorganization in January, employees will have to instead pay $590.34 for the last four months of this calendar year (an over 17% increase).
If the employee is married and has children, they will receive the further indignity of a monthly increase to $633.43 for the remaining five months of the school year (an increase of over 17% from what would have been an equal distribution and a 22% from the previous year). Now supposedly, this "finally" makes our insurance system “fair” for those who are not married or do not have children as a single employee will see their monthly rate decrease to $197.95 for those five months (employee + children and no spouse pays $376.10 [$178.15 more] while employee + spouse and no children pays $435.48 [$237.53 more]—note that these numbers should have made it so employee [$197.95] + spouse [$237.53] + children [$178.15] pays $613.63, but being stiffed the additional $19.80 a month is only the rotted cherry on the top of this turd sundae). What people don’t realize is that this situation gets even worse next school year for married employees who have children as the four month across-the-board payment up through December shielded them from the full cost which would have hit them and will hit them next year unless serious action is taken. Even if there is no increase to the overall price of insurance next year, married employees with children are looking at a monthly payment of $703.82 (an increase of over 38% from the 2021-2022 school year) for the nine months of the 2023-2024 school year [note: I have since realized that the percentage should have stated at least a 44% increase].
To be clear, this is after families were already penalized in the high deductible plan that was part of the previous contract negotiations.
People have said: “But the union voted for a tiered structure …” Mobs don’t always make the best choices especially when they are not given the full information.
People have said: “But many workers are on tiered systems …” Exactly, and look how their healthcare has turned out. Worse, we are on a system with an EXTREMELY limited pool of individuals, further dividing that pool (especially giving people more incentive to leave it) will only raise the overall cost even more (and for everyone) in a few years.
People have said: “It isn’t fair that single employees had to pay the same amount …” 1) You clearly do not understand how insurance systems work. They require people who will not be taking funds out of the pool to contribute to it. 2) This same logic would suggest that sick individuals should be paying higher premiums, something that we shield them from. 3) As noted above, the employees with families were already shelling out more for the high deductible plan. 4) People whose jobs are dependent on children being in the community SHOULD NOT being penalizing their employees for having children.
People have said: “You’re just mad because you will have to pay more because you have a spouse and children …” The truth is that I am going to save money due to this plan. Its huge cost makes it so it is more than worthwhile to drop my wife and children from my plan and add them to the one she has through her job. I will be paying that nice little $197.95 a month plus the significantly smaller amount for Janelle’s family insurance (I can’t switch to it due to a costly provision in her company’s plan) and then each of us will have our own employer contribution-based HSAs.
And here’s the real kicker: I’m the main user of insurance in my family; we hardly ever have to use it for Janelle and the boys, but I frequently go past the deductible. Thus, I will still be drawing money from the pool while contributing less. If I’m not the only one to do this, EVERYONE’s costs are going up due to the shrinking income.
To be clear: I will BENEFIT from this change, and I am still speaking out against it. Why? Because it is bad for my friends who do not have the options that I have, and it is bad for any educator who wants to have a family (especially for our paraprofessionals who are struggling enough already). Thus, it is bad for our entire school family.
Why didn’t I say something before? I DID. I argued this at multiple levels through the union before the vote. As a union representative, I had to tell people that the union recommended that we vote “yes” on the contract, but I told people that I was personally voting “no” and that I would be glad to tell them why. Sadly, few people even showed up to the informational meetings, let alone wanted to spend more time listening to me.
My warning now is: unless something significant changes, it is going to get much, much worse. Sadly, I don't think that people will understand what I mean until they see it in their paychecks.
RSS Feed
