Thousands of Killeen Independent School District employees won’t pay increased health insurance premiums this year, but district officials say the “anomaly” won’t last forever.
In a 6-0 vote on Tuesday, in the absence of board member JoAnn Purser, the Killeen ISD School Board approved district employee health insurance plans for 2023, opting to compensate the increased employee health insurance premiums for the first year using $5.9 million in federal coronavirus relief ESSER Fund.
During hours-long discussions at three school board meetings this month, BKCW insurance consultant Tad Dorroh laid out employee health insurance options for the 2022-23 school year ahead of a vote on the issue on Tuesday.
“I wanted to give you a sense of what’s happened over the years,” Dorroh said during an Aug. 9 board presentation on health insurance. “In 2014, 2015 and 2016, we had really positive years for insurance companies; they made money. In 2017 they lost money, and in 2018, 2019 and 20 they made money again. In 21 they lost money. So you can kind of see that 2020, when it was a very good year, the reverse happened in 21.”
Dorroh and his insurance team, Superintendent John Craft said, were tasked with providing the board with insurance options that would keep rates fixed for employees.
Currently, the District offers employees a choice of four health insurance plans.
Over the past three weeks, Dorroh has presented an insurance recommendation that would effectively consolidate the District’s current Health Insurance Plans A and B – the idea being that if the District combined the two plans, KISD would save $1.3 million. of dollars.
With health care costs rising every year, Craft said he doesn’t see a future where the district can keep Plans A and B.
“As far as long-term and sustainability go, at some point we really feel like we’re going to have to adjust plans A and B,” he said during a workshop Aug. 16. “If you look at the trends over the eight years, I mean it’s the plans, especially the A-planes, that cost the most for the whole group.”
Insurance consultant Tad Dorroh, with BKCW, and Stephanie Peterson, of Milliman in Dallas, advised Killeen Independent School District board members on health insurance options at a workshop Aug. 16.
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Plan B, according to Dorroh, is the least popular among KISD staff.
During the August workshop, board member JoAnn Purser called the board’s proposed plan to cover the rising cost of insurance premiums an “artificial solution” and a “bad business decision”.
“I’m going to say it one more time: if we don’t do a gradual increase in all of our members, there will be a big one very soon and everyone is going to be upset,” Purser said. “Everything has increased. We all know that. Everything we touch – chewing gum, gas, milk – everything has gone up. I understand we’re all struggling, we’re all hurting, but to say insurance is flat, I think, sends the wrong message to the school district, taxpayers and stakeholders.
Board members discussed their concerns about the impact of the proposed, but ultimately unapproved, consolidated health insurance plan on employees, with many citing rising inflation and uncertain economic conditions.
“I won’t call it artificial pricing, I’ll call it increased employee benefit at a time when we can afford to do it,” Board Vice Chairman Susan Jones said during the interview. of the workshop.
Board Chairman Brett Williams emphasized the importance of the board’s choices in health insurance.
“What we bring to our employees is so important because they have to live with it,” Williams said during the workshop.
In the end, the board voted 6-0 to keep employee health insurance plans at the same level this year, while acknowledging that the district may need to make changes in the future.
Beginning in September, Craft said, the district will begin notifying staff members of the upcoming health insurance enrollment period beginning in October.
