Joint meeting of all three bargaining teams [FCEA, CSEA, FCLA] and the Benefits Committee
The purpose of this meeting was to update all of the bargaining groups on the work of the Benefits Committee prior to starting negotiations in the spring for the 2025-26 school year.
Role of the Benefits Committee
The goal of the Benefits Committee is to have health plans that are good for people - plans they can actually afford to use
This committee is made up of representatives of all the stakeholder groups along with the district’s benefits personnel and insurance broker
The duties of this group include
Maintaining employee choices and benefits and (trying) cost
Reviewing data trends [no personal information is included] on usage, plan choices
Average premium increases from 2020-21 through 2024-25
Kaiser: 10.9% Sutter 8.2% and Western Health 3.9%
Expect increases from all three carriers for the 2025-26 school year
Review of 2024 Insurance Changes
For the last several years the Benefits Committee has used a variety of techniques to keep costs down and options open
An example: copays might go from $5 to $20 to modify plans to offset premium costs
The increases last year went beyond what previously existing steps could handle so we added a Nonstop option. Too many of our employees had high deductible plans but didn’t have an HSA - in other words they had coverage for absolute emergencies but generally couldn’t afford to use their health care.
Costs for employees come from both the premium and the out of pocket costs. Nonstop covers the out of pocket items like copays.
Nonstop also creates a larger pool grouping all three providers together that in insurance world averages out the younger, healthier people with those with more intensive medical needs
Side note: we are grandfathering out in-lieu for similar reasons. It decreases the pool of district healthcare participants which shrinks the pool and affects premiums. Alternative providers like CVT or CalPERS either won’t quote us rates or charge extra for those not participating.
Employees are shifting their plan choices
Nonstop participation rate is 73.9%
Copay participation is down 25%
Kaiser for the first time is not the majority plan -three years ago it was about 60% of employees. Currently each of the three carriers has about one third of the employees.
Overview of Changes for 2025
Next year there will be 3 tiers offered: Employee only, Emp. + 1, or Emp. + family
Based on current data 9% of the approx 25% of our current families would benefit from offering Emp + 1 directly
This makes us more marketable for groups like CalPERs, SISC and CVT and aligns with districts like ElkGrove, Twin Rivers and San Juan that allows for better comparisons for quote and alignment going forward.
The committee reviewed multiple models that redistributed existing district contributions from our current 2-tier into a 3 tier model. Note these caps are prior to any negotiated changes for 2025-26 but do provide improvements through slightly larger caps or for employees+1 lower premiums.
A copay option for each plan will still be offered
Next Steps
Governor’s 25-26 budget is out January 10th (although it isn’t final until later in the summer). Last week the Legislative Analyst Office projected a COLA of 2.46%
Last fall when we signed the TA, it included an agreement that 90% of LCFF COLA increases (minus step & column and statutory benefits) be set aside as a line item if we don’t have a settlement in place.
This was to address our collective feeling that we were negotiating “leftovers” after district budgets were created. It is a big step in the right direction but it is also a floor and not a ceiling.
The Benefits Department is continuing to update their website and continue education efforts as questions and feedback arise.
FCEA will continue to push information out via the FCEA News, Reps and other resources too.
In January, look for the bargaining team to send out information about budgeting, the cost of a 1% salary increase, information about costs associated with decreasing class size or modifying existing caps so you can compare those to the salary increase. That information will come with a survey. Member survey responses are shared with FCEA’s Exec Board who use them to provide the Bargaining Team with direction. Please take this time after winter break to read through this material and complete the survey so that your voice is heard.
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