The challenge of health insurance premiums

There's an article in today's Indy Star ( http://www.indystar.com/article/20090827/LOCAL0101/908270441/1013/NEWS04/Health+premiums+slam+Carmel+teachers) about the challenges of dramatically rising health premiums in the Carmel schools.

Schools and other public entities are caught in a real squeeze on this issue. Our general fund is completely determined by the state, and of course we want and need to pay our teachers what they're worth. But on the other side are rising premiums. Last year the LCSC received notice that employee health premiums were rising by about 45%. When the board looked at the figures (with our asst. superintendent and CFO Charles Tait) we realized the impact this would have on teachers who are on the LCSC plan. We decided to use about $330,000 from our corporation Rainy Day Fund to defray the additional costs for this year.

Teachers on the insurance still felt it--their premiums increased by about a third. But as my colleague Tom Merritt said in our meeting, "Now they're going to feel like they've been hit by a car instead of a truck."

This year the premiums are certain to go up again. We're not sure what we'll do, but the bind that faced us last year and that Carmel is grappling with right now is not going to go away. It's one of many reasons I'm keeping an eye on the national health care reform debate.