A group of USD 428 current and retired teachers attended the legislative coffee Saturday hosted by the Great Bend Chamber of Commerce. One educator questioned the thinking behind the newly proposed HB 2142. The bill, essentially, would place all teachers and staff of K-12 public education into one large pool for health insurance.

“Some districts like ours are self-funded, and that would be a huge loss for us,” the person stated.
While freshman Rep. Tory Arnberger admitted she was not familiar with the bill, which was presented earlier in the week, Rep. Troy Waymaster, Chairman of the House Appropriation Committee and representing northern Barton County, jumped in.

On Wednesday, Feb. 8, Legislative Post Audit released their findings on whether it would be beneficial or not to have a statewide health insurance plan. The governor anticipates $80 million in state savings, which he has factored into his budget proposals for 2018 and 2019, with an additional $10 million from procurement. There was a similar bill last year, though it didn’t go anywhere because, according to Waymaster, it was a terrible bill.

Proposal background
Waymaster provided some history on the bill, which was a result of a 2015 legislature commissioned efficiency study by the auditing firm Alvarez & Marsal. One of the recommendations that came back was that there could be potential savings from a collective health insurance pool for K-12 education.

The legislature looked into that possibility last year, but didn’t get any traction, Waymaster said. The bill proposed this year, HB 2142, has similar parameters.

“After evaluating 101 school districts, we could see a potential savings of $63 million,” he said. “If we incorporate all 286 school districts, it could be higher than the $80 million the governor proposes. But it’s too soon to speculate if anything will come of it right now.”

The K-12 Education Budget Committee, which reports to Appropriations, had scheduled a hearing Monday, which was cancelled. On Wednesday, the Committee will receive a briefing on the Legislative Post Audit on K-12 Benefit Consolidation, which will be released earlier that day.

Other pooled items
Besides health, other items that could be procured through a state agency rather than locally in order to achieve efficiency are food and fuel . But, this is something a lot of local school districts have an issue with, Waymaster noted. Especially when it comes to fuel, because many districts have relationships with their local co-op or some other gas station. HB 2143 is the related bill addressing procurement.

How local teachers could be affected
Since being proposed, the bill has received mixed reviews amongst districts initially. Larger districts have tended to be against the bill. Teachers at USD 428 fall into this category, concerned by the proposed deductibles teachers could face.

Emily Mulch, a member the local Kansas chapter of the National Education Association, noted that currently, a single person insured by USD 428’s independent health plan faces an annual deductible of $1,200. Under a proposed statewide pool plan, that deductible would jump to between $6,000 and $10,000.

“That’s huge jump for the starting teacher who makes a base annual salary of around $35,000,” she said.

But Waymaster has heard from other districts who would like to get into a state pool because they feel it would offer better coverage, he said. A lot of smaller districts that just don’t have the leverage to negotiate for better coverage for their staff and teachers fall into this category.