VSBA to Pandemic Heroes: Pay More for Less Healthcare
July 1, 2021
At the end of what was arguably the most challenging school year in our lifetimes, the team representing the Vermont School Boards Association in statewide healthcare talks wants to “reward” you by hiking premiums, upping out-of-pocket costs, and, even more cruelly, stripping full healthcare coverage for some of our lowest-paid school employees.
In an exchange of opening-round proposals (including a second proposal from your team), it is clear that the five VSBA representatives – only three of whom are actual school board members – want to weaken your healthcare benefits even as we emerge from a once-in-a-century pandemic that exposed just how important affordable, accessible, and quality healthcare is for everyone. In fact, their opening proposal would make it nearly impossible for education support professionals – our paras, bus drivers, cafeteria workers, custodians – to obtain full healthcare coverage after the current package expires at the end of 2022.
Clearly, the VSBA team has no regard for the human toll of making accessible healthcare even more out of reach for thousands of dedicated public school employees.
Or, as a member of the VSBA team put it during talks Tuesday, the only metric that matters to them is shifting more costs onto the backs of hard-working school employees, the same people local school boards across Vermont have hailed as heroes for keeping our schools open – and our students engaged – during the global pandemic.
Specifically, the VSBA team wants to:
Hike costs by having employees pay up to 24 percent of the monthly premium by the end of a three-year package.
Hike costs by increasing out-of-pocket exposure by thousands of dollars; their proposal would saddle our ESP colleagues with a quintupling of out-of-pocket costs and our teachers with a quadrupling of those costs.
Reduce access to healthcare by boosting the weekly hours required to qualify for full coverage, a move that will reduce healthcare access for thousands of our hardest-working and lowest-paid colleagues.
Unsurprisingly, your team categorically rejected the VSBA proposal. In contrast, your team wants to:
Improve access and affordability by tying premium contributions to an employee’s ability to pay. Specifically, employees earning less than $35,000 would pay 12 percent of the monthly premium; those earning between $35,000 and $70,000 would pay 15 percent; and those earning more than $70,000 would pay 17 percent.
Reduce out-of-pocket exposure by requiring school boards to fund a health reimbursement arrangement with employer-first dollars. These amounts, like premium contributions, would be based on income. What this means is that employees earning less than $35,000, would pay $100 a year in OOP costs for single coverage and $200 for all other tiers; for those earning between $35,000 and $70,000 the employee would pay $200 for single and $400 for all other tiers; for those earning more than $70,000, the amounts would be $300 and $600.
Maintain current eligibility levels for full healthcare coverage.
You can read the VSBA proposal here; you can read your team's opening proposal here; and you can read your team’s second proposal here. And you can compare the proposals in this side-by-side document here.
As you can imagine, your team – comprised of active teachers and support professionals – was disappointed and frankly insulted by the VSBA team’s opening proposal. Their proposal would have been wrong in a normal year; it is downright cruel in the tail end of a global pandemic.
So, what’s next? Both sides Tuesday declared impasse in negotiations, triggering the next steps in the healthcare bargaining process (a timeline is available here). Mediation is slated for July 7-9.
Your team is dedicated to ensuring that Vermont’s public school employees have continued access to affordable, accessible, and quality healthcare. We will carry that message – and fight for that goal – when we next meet with the VSBA.
As always, you can visit vthealthbargainingteam.org for more information. And to learn about the connection between our healthcare bargaining and our push for systemic healthcare reform, please watch a quick video by clicking below.