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Insurance costs high for Arkansas teachers, union says Thursday, Apr 10, 2008 By John Lyon Arkansas News Bureau LITTLE ROCK - Public school teachers in Arkansas pay more than twice the national average for health insurance, the head of the state's largest teachers union told a legislative panel Wednesday. Testifying before the Joint Adequacy Evaluation Oversight Committee, Rich Nagel, executive director of the Arkansas Education Association, said the association was pleased to learn that the average health plan for an Arkansas teacher cost $365 per month in 2007-08, or about $11 less than the national average as reported by the Kaiser Family Foundation. "That indicates, I think, that we're really in line" in terms of total costs, Nagel said. "But where we make a pretty dramatic departure is the amount of money paid by the employee." Arkansas teachers paid 42 percent of the total cost for their health insurance in 2007-08, or $152 per month, Nagel said. The state paid the remaining 58 percent, or $213 per month. Teachers nationwide paid 16 percent of the total cost of their health plans, or $59 per month, Nagel said. The difference is "even more dramatic" for teachers with family health insurance plans, he said. Arkansas teachers paid 71 percent of the cost for family plans, or $701 per month, while teachers nationwide paid 27 percent, or $275 per month, Nagel said. Nagel acknowledged that significant improvements have been made in Arkansas teacher salaries over the past few years, but he said high insurance costs are a problem. "What this tends to do, of course, is that when people are looking to where they might want to go and work, they take a look at the health insurance and the salaries, and our salaries may be higher, but if you have to pay more for health insurance, that fits into the equation," he said. "We do have a serious problem here," said Rep. Bill Abernathy, D-Mena, the committee's House chairman. The Legislature has increased funding to public schools by nearly $1 billion since 2004. |
