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Local school district employees may get more options for health insurance if they choose to participate in the state plan.
And according to a district survey, at least 75 percent of staff are interested in making the switch.
At Monday night's USD 410 Board of Education meeting, district business manager went through the details of the new state plan. He has already gone through the information with district employees.
The new state plan insurance must be considered now, because if the district wants to leave their current insurance with the Educational Services and Staff Development Association of Central Kansas, it must let ESSDACK know by Feb. 1.
If the district does decide to go ahead with the state insurance plan, the new plan would have to be changed in the employees' master contract. That would require further negotiations between the board and the employees.
According to figures calculated by the district, approximately 75 percent of employees now covered by district insurance would either save money or come within $30 of their previous totals, Hinerman said.
But one group of individuals who would not benefit from the change include families with both spouses working for USD 410, as well as families with both spouses working for schools within ESSDACK, Hinerman said.
For those families, each individual employee would have to get a separate policy.
Policies including just employee and spouse would save money, since the employee would no longer be paying for children, Hinerman said.
Right now, there are about 20 to 25 Kansas school districts enrolled in the state plan.
With the new state plan:
— Workers could choose from a wide variety of plans and companies. They could pick a Blue Cross Blue Shield plan with a "preferred provider organization" network, or they could join a Preferred Health Systems HMO.
— Plans would have a variety of different deductibles or co-payment amounts.
— Vision and dental coverage would be included in the plan.
— For most plans, the cost for prescription drugs would be a percentage of that drug's cost, not just a co-payment.
— Workers would have four choices in the type of coverage: employee only, employee with spouse, employee with children, and employee with spouse and children.
— Premiums would increase for those earning more than $44,000 per year.
