Michigan School Health Insurance Costs

Michigan School Health Insurance Costs [Michigan Capitol Confidential]
Four days after Gov. Rick Snyder recommended a 2011-2012 budgetthat would reduce state aid for schools by $300 per pupil, the Petoskeyschool board proposed a plan to reduce the district’s teacher andsupport staff health insurance costs. Its timidity reveals why the publicschool establishment finds even the prospect of modest state fundingreductions so traumatic ($300 is just 3 percent of the $9,742Petoskey spent per student in 2009).
The most aggressive part of the Petoskey board’s plan is tocap the district’s future health insurance premium payments at next year’slevel.
But those capped rates would still be significantly out of line withprivate-sector averages.
The Petoskey News reports the district anticipates spending$17,756 for each employee enrolled in a family plan next year.
That’s roughly72 percent more than the private-sector average in Michigan.