FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: October 22, 2015
At TRS town hall, teacher union calls for catch-up increases in state health-care funding for school employees and retirees
The Texas Teacher Retirement System Board of Trustees is holding a Town Hall meeting today to gather input and answer questions on TRS health-care plans, and Texas AFT plans to address the board with testimony about the need for the state to step up and adequately fund health care for public school employees.
“Employees in districts that participate in TRS-ActiveCare and in districts that have their own health plans all face essentially the same problem: They all are paying more and more of their modest paychecks for less and less health coverage,” said Texas AFT President Louis Malfaro.
The state’s funding for health insurance has stagnated at $75 per employee per month since 2002, while the cost of health insurance has risen steadily. According to figures from TRS, in the 2002-2003 school year--after taking into account the monthly $75 state contribution and the minimum required district contribution of $150 a month--the employee share of the premium was under 30 percent for individual coverage under a mid-level comprehensive plan administered by the Teacher Retirement System. The employee share has more than doubled since then, to 63 percent this school year, while premium costs have risen and benefits have diminished.
Malfaro noted that TRS in its Care and ActiveCare programs and most school districts in their own health programs already have implemented numerous cost-control measures, and there is little, if any, room for large savings over the short- or near-term. “So-called ‘solutions’ to simply shift costs—almost always onto already over-burdened employees—just exacerbate the problem,” Malfaro said.
Texas AFT has long advocated an obvious and real solution for restoring affordable, good-quality health care for active and retired public school employees: The legislature must commit to significant, sustained increases in state funding. As part of the broader effort to provide adequate and equitable support for public education, state funding must be increased immediately and must be further raised over time so that the share of active and retired employees’ paychecks dedicated to health-care costs is reasonable and sustainable.
With specific respect to active employee coverage, Texas AFT is calling on the Legislature to:
- Immediately enhance state funding with a $75 monthly increase per employee in formula aid for school districts earmarked for health coverage, effective for the current 2015-2016 school year.
- Provide annual incremental increases in state funding of $75 per employee until the employee share of the premium cost for individual coverage under a decent comprehensive plan is reduced to the level originally established in 2002 when the state began specifically funding employee health care through the school-finance formula.
- Once that level of state funding is restored, maintain it by indexing the state contribution to medical costs.
- Similarly, state contributions for retiree health care should be increased and indexed to medical cost. TRS-Care benefits must be maintained at least at current levels and retirees’ share of premium costs held constant or reduced.
“While the price tag for taking these steps will not be small, it is just one unfortunate consequence of the state’s failure to act in the past 13 years,” Malfaro said. Had the state been keeping up with average annual private-sector employers’ health-contribution increases of more than 5 percent over that same period, employees' share of premiums would have stayed relatively flat, and the state would not face the need for such significant increased effort now.
Texas AFT proposes phasing in the catch-up of state contributions--a recognition that making up the whole deficit in state effort at all at once may be too challenging. “What we’re saying is that it's time to get started and commit to achieving the goal over a reasonable period of time,” Malfaro said.
Texas AFT has a petition urging the Legislature to increase funding for school employee health care at http://www.texasaft.org/healthcarepetition/ .
Texas AFT represents more than 65,000 teachers, paraprofessionals, support personnel, and higher-education employees across the state. Texas AFT is affiliated with the 1.6-million-member American Federation of Teachers.
###