Continued: St. Paul teachers vote down statewide health plan

The St. Paul Federation of Teachers announced Thursday evening that its 3,600 members have rejected by nearly a 2-to-1 ratio a proposal to leave the St. Paul School District's health insurance plan for a statewide public employee plan.

Over the past few weeks, union members have voted on whether to leave the plan for the Public Employees Insurance Program (PEIP), which is open to non-state public sector employees in Minnesota and would have had lower premiums for union members. In results released Thursday, 1,106 members voted against the plan, and 572 voted for it.

Mary Cathryn Ricker, union president, said one major drawback that teachers saw in the plan is that it would not have covered employees' adult children, age 19 to 25, who are not in school, and that members would not have received a benefit for being a member of a health club.

Education Minnesota, the statewide teachers union, has been pushing the Legislature to create a statewide school employee insurance pool for some time. The more employees in a pool, theoretically, the lower the costs because the cost of claims could be spread across more members. The Legislature approved the plan during the 2008 session, but Gov. Tim Pawlenty vetoed it.

As one of the largest unions in the state, St. Paul could have set a precedent for other teachers' unions to leave district plans for PEIP, looking to soothe ubiquitous health care worries. It would have been a way to help create their own de-facto statewide pool for health insurance, without going through the Legislature.

Teachers in the Alexandria district participate in PEIP. According to Shawn Byrne, a principal with Mercer Health and Benefits, which provides administration for the PEIP plan, about 50 other Minnesota teachers' unions have also expressed interest.

"We don't see that the statewide [educators] plan is going to happen," said Steve Gilbertson, insurance chairman for the Alexandria union. "So a lot of these people are thinking, 'Geez, we've got to do something, because insurance is just killing us.' "

Ricker said she was disappointed in the vote, because she was excited about the chance to help launch a state pool to control costs for school employees. But she said she was encouraged by the substantive health insurance discussions that members have had in recent months, and that those discussions will help the union as it enters into contract negotiations with the district this spring.

Lois Rockney, chief business officer for the St. Paul district, said the school district didn't take a position on whether the teachers should leave the district's plan, which is provided by HealthPartners. But the district sent informational e-mails to employees, had an outside firm present information about the plan, and put information online.

"Health insurance is a very personal kind of a decision for an employee to make," Rockney said. "We wanted to make sure that they had all the information they needed to make that decision."

Byrne said PEIP prefers to work with entire districts, but will also work with unions whose districts don't want to be involved. There are currently 4,000 to 5,000 members in the PEIP plan that St. Paul teachers would have joined, which is based on the Minnesota Advantage plan for state employees. The St. Paul teachers would have made up the largest group of employees in the plan, Byrne said.

Marnie Pershke, a media specialist at World Cultures Magnet in St. Paul, said she voted against the plan because she has a 20-year-old son who would not be covered under the new plan. That's even though recent increases in premiums have outpaced increases that she and her husband, a district teacher, see in their salaries.

"I didn't see that the [new] plan was going to save us all that much money in the long run because of our situation," she said. "It would have cost us even more in the end 'cause we want our kid to be insured."

The St. Paul Federation of Teachers is made up of 3,000 teachers, 500 educational assistants and 100 school community service professionals.

"I'm disappointed that St. Paul voted it down," said Gilbertson. "We were looking forward to trying to build up a larger group to show the state that it's a viable plan, and it's successful."

Emily Johns • 651-298-1541