Health Insurance

Dear HFT Members,

What would you think of a man who could not pay his child support, but bought $800.00 rims for his car, "Because it makes me look good!" ?

Well, that is what HISD is doing. The Administration proposed and Board voted to cut your health care benefits and raise your health care cost because they said they could not afford the 20 million it would have cost to keep you safe (In a year in which you got no raise, this amounts to a salary package cut), but they voted to put 46 million into the ASPIRE Award program!!! Because it makes them look good! "We are awarding good teaching" they crow to every media outlet and Rotary Club. (BTW, only 10 million for Aspire comes from outside sources this year)

Employee incentives should come from surplus money, not from the base salaries and health care coverage of the entire district, including those not eligible for the ASPIRE award, such as the lowest paid employees.

For employees in Open Access, the rate increase is 300%!, No, that's not a typo. If you are in Consumer plus or basic, the only way to avoid an increase is to go into the "Single Hospital Plan" in which there is NO out of network coverage and you can only go to Memorial System Hospitals. MD Anderson has been priced out of reach of most employees, with a 35-45% coinsurance required. (One Board Member held forth that there is nothing exceptional about MD Anderson) On top of that, all prescriptions will cost more. Your deductible is increasing, and so is the maximum out of pocket.

The only good news is, there is a special election for a Board Seat coming up. Our members need to be active in this process. More information on that to come.
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Joanna Pasternak
Houston Federation of Teachers