Hamilton County Schools headquarters
Jonathan WelchA proposal to charge teachers and school employees an extra $100 a month to keep their spouse and families on the school’s health care plan got a cool reception Wednesday from the Hamilton County School Board.
“For those lower-income households where the spouse is not working, this is a real burden,” District 2 board member Jonathan Welch said at Wednesday’s work session.
So other options will be on the table when the school board decides soon how to cut the cost of a health care plan that doesn’t quite reach the “Cadillac” category — but is better than what’s offered by other large employers, school officials say.
“Give us a few more options,” school board Chairman Mike Evatt said, after discussion included a range of money-saving ideas, from getting more employees to use generic prescription drugs to charging employees higher deductibles.
The Hamilton County Department of Education spends $50 million annually on health care, said Ed Adams, the consultant who’s helping the school district figure out how to cut costs.