School employee health insurance bill approved

A bill to create a statewide health insurance plan for school employees was approved Thursday by the Oregon Senate after Democratic backers asserted such a move could save school districts tens of millions of dollars.

The Senate’s minority Republicans unanimously opposed the bill, saying Democrats were pushing the package without a firm evaluation of numbers and that pooling health plans could actually cost taxpayers more money.

Right now, school districts pick their own plans, and many school administrators say they already get the benefits of pooling workers via a plan offered by the Oregon School Boards Association.

The Senate sent the measure to the House on a party-line vote of 18-11 after Democrats said a statewide health care pool for educators could save schools $270 million over the next five years by allowing one entity to negotiate for the most competitive prices.

“Today you have one district that bargains well, and you go five miles away and find the opposite” in another district, said Sen. Ryan Deckert, D-Beaverton.

Deckert also said the bill, which is backed by Democratic Gov. Ted Kulongoski, is needed because average health care costs for teachers are projected to rise about 8 percent a year for the next five years, from $800 a month today to $1,175 a month by 2012.

The plan has met with strong opposition from the Oregon School Boards Association, which runs its own health insurance trust, covering about 64 percent of Oregon’s school employees. A portion of the fees paid by districts to be a part of that pool goes to the association’s operating budget.

Republican Sen. Jeff Kruse of Roseburg said school officials from throughout his district have urged him to oppose the Democratic insurance pooling plan.

“Every one of them told me this would cost them more money. That’s taking money away from the classrooms,” he said.

Kruse and other Republicans say districts could lose money if the new pooling model is anything like the state public employees’ benefits package. They say that most school district health plans make employees share part of the cost of benefits, unlike the state worker plans offered by the state Public Employees Benefits Board.

But supporters of the bill said it is unfair to compare the proposed pooling plan with the Public Employees Benefits Board. They said school districts would retain the right to bargain collectively with labor unions over the cost of benefits for workers.

In the 2005 legislative session, a similar bill was bottled up in the House, which then was controlled by Republicans.

With Democrats in control of both chambers of the Legislature this time around, the bill is considered likely to win approval.

Under the proposal sponsored by Deckert, the new Oregon Educators Benefits Board could chose a single insurer or a consortium of insurers, or choose to self-insure.

Local school boards, education service districts and community colleges would continue to negotiate with employees over who pays what percentage of health insurance costs. Backers say the plan would cut back on administrative costs, and that built-in safeguards would ensure that no district would pay higher rates than under their old plans.