Unfortunately, the next issue as we work on our budget is health care for our employees and their families. 

Health insurance costs are out of our control nationwide, and the price of insurance is skyrocketing for everyone. For instance, just last year, insurance companies requested a 23% premium increase on average. 

For the past five years, the district has spent $264 million from reserves and federal COVID funds to put off this day, but those funds have run out, and there seems to be no other option but to increase the cost of health insurance for OCPS employees and dependent coverage. 

Since the 2022-2023 school year, OCPS has increased teachers’ pay by 20%, significantly higher than any of our neighboring districts, by making cuts at the district level. 

When we were warned that the cost of our medical claims was outpacing what we were generating in revenue, we held off on increasing deductibles and premiums for employee and dependent coverage and instead opted to transfer funding from our reserves to pay the shortfall each year. 

This was the board’s way of holding off as long as we could. We knew people were struggling, and we were hoping the economy would turn around, but the huge healthcare costs are not going away. 

We are self-insured, like most districts in the state, because it’s cheaper as we don’t pay health insurance company profits. Every penny paid for insurance through premiums, deductibles and copays is used to pay claims and to ensure we have two months of claims costs in reserve, as required by state law. The cost of claims has outpaced the revenue for several years.  

Despite all of that, we are raising OCPS’s contribution for each employee’s premium to $11,611, up from $10,555 per employee, but we are still facing a $145 million deficit in claims. 

To cover that shortfall, we must increase the costs for employees and dependents.  

I understand this will force employees to make changes to healthcare choices for their families that are difficult. I get it, I pay for my family’s health insurance, as well. I will see a huge increase next year, too.  

In a perfect world, we would take on all increases in health insurance, but our goal is to keep all the cuts out of the classroom as much as possible. 

But as costs rise, it is becoming increasingly difficult.