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Teachers in Northeast Pennsylvania, however, backed by a thriving, proactive union, can, have and do fight for their salaries and benefits at every opportunity.
In Luzerne County, the determination of teachers unions to resist any and all efforts to share health insurance costs has been a consistent headline-grabber. In the Lake-Lehman and Northwest Area districts, strikes have drawn attention and negotiations continue to stall.
Last year, following a four-year contract dispute, the Crestwood School District bucked the county-wide trend — no health insurance premium payments by teachers — and became the only district in Luzerne County where teachers contribute a percentage of their salaries to health costs.
Outside Luzerne County, it’s a different story.
The number of Pennsylvania school districts in which teachers contribute to their premiums increased from 31 percent in 2003 to 59 percent by 2006, according to a review by the Pennsylvania School Boards Association.
“Teachers are among the last in any occupation to have such generous health care plans,” said Justin Matus, chair of the business department at Wilkes University and a fellow at the American College of Health Care Executives. “At the end of the day, there has to be a little give on both sides. I’m a professor at Wilkes; we have co-pays and defined benefits. But after that, we pay.”
Industries nationwide, from airlines to automobile manufacturers, are finding themselves stuck in health care plans they can no longer afford, Matus said.
“If (the industries) can’t get out from under those costs, I don’t know if they can be sustained,” he said.
After contract negotiations in Northwest Area failed because teachers refused to contribute $30 a month to their premiums, many in that community asked if calling on teachers to chip in for their own health insurance was an unreasonable proposition.
Local representatives from teachers unions believe it is.
“It’s just not fair to say that if you have to do it, then teachers have to do it,” replied Pennsylvania State Education spokesman Paul Shemansky. “How would you
feel if you had a good health care plan, and your employers said they were taking it away? If you’re a teacher starting at $34,000, your checks aren’t that big and paying $900 a year in health care hits you hard. Once you start doing co-pay, do you think co-pays will ever go down? They’re only going up, and once you start paying in, you’ll keep paying more with each contract.”
Shemansky also said that school districts need competitive salaries and benefit packages to attract the most qualified candidates — and to attract businesses that would consider setting up shop in the area.
“The first thing they look at is the infrastructure. The second thing is the schools. People want to move to a district where students get a good education and teachers are happy. That’s the bottom line.”
Crestwood School District, however, marked a first for the county last year when the school board convinced teachers to contribute up to 1 percent of their salary to health care costs in exchange for a salary increase. Coming off a four-year contract dispute, board members called the initiative a “historic victory.”
“Crestwood teachers bravely realized times had changed and stepped up to the plate. They really did,” said Crestwood board member Gene Mancini, who played a key role in contract negotiations. “It took guts to be the first in Luzerne County. I think they took a brave step and I can’t say that enough times.”
Shemansky countered that schools need to cut costs on health care premiums by shopping around to find better deals, not digging into teachers’ pockets.
The Northeast Pennsylvania School Districts Health Trust was designed to do that. It was established in 1999 when 13 districts joined together to purchase insurance at a reduced rate. But so far, four of the 13 school districts that originally signed on have voted to pull out in favor of self-funded plans.
“There was a myriad of issues, but it was the result of essentially overcharging,” said Dallas business manager Grant Palfey.
Though the trust was supposed to break even, it accumulated a surplus of $18 million, Palfey said. Meanwhile, Dallas’ health costs have increased 67 percent in the last five years.
“What were we paying to contribute to that surplus? What was Dallas’ piece of that $18 million?” Palfey wondered.
Dallas and Pittston Area have already left the trust. Northwest Area and Greater Nanticoke Area planned to exit in June, but were stalled when the PSEA obtained a temporary injunction, postponing any change in coverage for at least a year.
Other school districts, however, have reported success with the trust.
According to Wilkes-Barre Area business manager Ralph Scoda, the trust will save member districts a total of $4 million this year thanks to a one-month premium forgiveness slated for August. The trust’s board of trustees approved the forgiveness last week.
“The trust is one of the best things to happen to Northeast Pennsylvania,” said Scoda. “It’s saved taxpayers huge amounts of money.”
Crucial courses
State Rep. Steven Nickol, R-Hanover, York County, hopes to introduce legislation this fall that would pool all school employees — teachers, administrators, janitors and others — into a statewide trust. Inspired by a 2004 report from the Legislative Budget and Finance Committee that claimed school districts could save taxpayers more than $500 million if they banded together, the initiative has already found bipartisan support in Gov. Edward Rendell.
“The administration has been working closely with Nickol in an effort to develop a strategy that would offer cost savings to school districts,” confirmed Rendell aide Chuck Ardo. “The governor has long supported innovative and creative solutions to the challenges facing Pennsylvania schools.”
The legislation would also ease contract negotiations, Nickol added, by taking a wedge issue off the bargaining table.
“In this day and age, dealing with double-digit increases is killing school boards. School health care costs have become the number one reason that strikes occur,” Nickol said. “We’re trying to get the two groups together behind one package working for the same goal. I’d love to reduce school health care costs without reducing benefits, and this has that prospect. You don’t have to cut back on the quality of coverage.”
Another potential solution is wellness initiatives.
Experts have long complained that America’s health care system is too heavily focused on treating the sick, instead of emphasizing preventative medicine that would enable patients to avoid seeing a doctor in the first place.
According to Palfey, if school districts would add measures such as smoking cessation classes, exercise facilities and on-campus day care — possibly run by students — it would lead to healthier, happier teachers, thus lowering a district’s number of annual claims and its overall health costs.
“There are a lot of programs available to make better health easier. It sounds like a cliche, but it’s true,” said Palfey, who hopes to have a plan in place for Dallas by next year. “When I worked at Blue Cross, it was a big up-and-coming initiative. I think it has a lot of teeth. To really focus on health, not just the dollar impact, is a positive thing and I’d like to see it happen across the state.”
In the end, however, if health costs continue to increase at sky-high rates, nothing short of a sweeping overhaul may be enough to keep school districts from having to make tough choices.
And while the push for teachers to share health insurance costs may be a new phenomenon in Luzerne County, that’s hardly the case throughout the state.
“It’s not a new fad,” said Mancini. “It’s put hurt on all 501 districts in Pennsylvania. Asking for a contribution is one method, but you can’t necessarily shift the burden completely to teachers either. Something is going to have to be done statewide or nationally.”
“Health care is going to be resolved in Harrisburg or D.C.,” agreed Shemansky. “We all want to have a good job, a good salary and a good health care plan. Nobody wants to go on strike.”
bjarvis@citizensvoice.com, 570-821-2054
Erin Moody and Andrew Staub, staff writers, contributed to this story.
