Vermilion Parish School Board will decide on Thursday how much to raise insurance premiums
The Vermilion Parish School Board is anticipated to vote Thursday on the proposed increase in health insurance premiums.
On Monday, at an insurance committee meeting, insurance committee members, and school board members listened to HUB International’s Louanna Landry give an hour-long presentation about the future cost of health insurance.
The simple message she gave was that the school board needs to increase the premiums from insurance holders, along with the school board kicking in an extra $300,000 a year.
The school board is self-insured for a specific amount per claim. As a self-insured entity, the school board must maintain sufficient savings to cover potential insurance claims.
A target savings amount is more than $4 million, but the school board currently has only $2.7 million. To raise the savings from $2.7 million to $4.1 million, it will need to increase insurance premiums.
Before the school board votes on the new premium amount at Thursday’s meeting, Superintendent Tommy Byler will send out a brief electronic survey to full-time employees. The survey will consist of three straightforward questions regarding how much they are willing to pay for health insurance coverage.
The survey questions could be phrased as follows:
• “Are you willing to pay an additional $50 per month to maintain your current insurance coverage?”
• “Are you willing to pay an additional $40 per month for reduced insurance coverage?”
• “Are you willing to pay an additional $20 per month for significantly less coverage?”
On Thursday, the school board will look at the answers to the survey questions and then decide on how much to increase the insurance premiums.”
School employees have not experienced a health insurance premium hike in seven years, as noted by School Board member Nick Touchet, the chair of the insurance committee.
“What has been happening is that the school district has been eating the increased insurance premiums,” said Touchet. “We can not afford to do that anymore.”