Lake Washington Education Association

You may want to revisit your health care choices this fall!

Benefits open enrollment is upon us---you have until October 12 to make insurance choices for the new school year.  It's important for you to carefully consider your options, since once open enrollment closes, you won't be able to change your mind.

This year Premera rates took a huge jump.  All their medical plans went up a stunning 13.3%, even though general inflation is at rock bottom.  (Group Health increases were much more reasonable at 2.5%.)

To further exacerbate the problem, the state legislature only increased the allocation for full-time employees by $23 per month.

This year each full-time employee will have $768 to spend on health benefits before insurance pooling kicks in.  (Due to the nature of insurance pooling, we won't know how much money is available in the pool until after October 12 when everyone makes their final health care choices.)

Part-time certificated employees who are half-time or greater will have the state's $768 insurance allocation prorated by their FTE.  (Remember that part-time certificated employees are not eligible to participate in the insurance pool---only full-time employees have access to insurance pooling.)

Here's how the health care increases could affect you if you're a full-time employee:

State Allocation                                $768.00

Washington Dental                           -129.30

NBN Vision                                          -24.00

Cigna Life Insurance (average)          -4.72

Cigna Long-term Disability               -16.98

Funds Available for Medical          $593.00
(Before insurance pooling)

Premera is charging $720 per month for a single subscriber on Plan 1.  That means if you stay in this plan, or select it, you could potentially have to pay $127 per month out-of-paycheck for medical insurance.  Last year, full-time employees who selected this plan paid nothing.  (This $127 calculation is before pooling is taken into account---but again, we won't know how much, if any, pool dollars will be available until everyone makes their final, irrevocable choice for 2010-11.)

To insure a family is even worse.  Premera charges $1,686 for full-family coverage on Plan 1.  A full-time certificated employee who chooses this plan will pay $1,093 per month out-of-paycheck (before pooling).  Even selecting Premera's least expensive plan, Easy Choice, will result in an out-of-paycheck monthly deduction of $474 for full-family coverage before pooling.

We strongly recommend you take a close look at the medical plan you've selected to see if a different plan may make more economic sense for you.  If you're a full-time employee insuring only yourself on Premera, for example, moving to Plan 2 will lessen the likelihood you won't have any out-of-paycheck costs.  (Plan 2 does have a higher deductible and higher co-pays, however.)

Another option might be to consider Willamette Dental, which will allow you to spend $45 more per month on medical than if you select Washington Dental.

You can find information on all the plans, along with the 2010-11 insurance rates, on the LWSD Portal.  We also encourage you to attend the district's benefits fair on September 29 at the Resource Center where you can discuss your options with insurance representatives and Payroll staff.