Colfax school board approves employee insurance options with $2,000 and $4,000 deductibles

By LeAnn R. Ralph

COLFAX —  Although it was not anyone’s fault, the Colfax school district finds itself in the position of practically being uninsurable for employee health insurance.

The Colfax school district had several very large claims, which caused other insurance providers to not bid on providing health insurance, said Bill Yingst, superintendent, at the Colfax Board of Education’s November 21 meeting.

In fact, the Colfax school district has become so unattractive to the insurance market that only WEA Trust would even bid on providing health insurance for the district, he said.

The school district generally does not consider health insurance changes at this time of year, but the options approved by the school board will go into effect January 1.

The three options that will now be available to the school district’s staff will be in effect from January 1 to June 30.

June 30 is technically the end of the school year.

In addition to the existing insurance plan, school staff will have two other options, both of which include a $2,000 deductible for a single person and a $4,000 deductible for a family.

Under the existing insurance plan, the deductible, within the network, is $500 for a single person and $1,000 for a family, along with a maximum out-of-pocket of $4,500 for a single person and $9,000 for a family.

Under Option 2A and Option 2B,with deductibles of $2,000 and $4,000, the plans have a maximum out of pocket of $2,000 for a single person and $4,000 for a family.

The existing health insurance plan has a number of copays for preventive care, urgent care, emergency room, high-tech imaging and prescription drugs.

The other two options cover 100 percent within the network after the deductible is met for emergency room visits, hospital services, high-tech imaging and prescription drugs.

The school district pays 87.4 percent of all of the insurance premiums.

Under the existing plan, the school district pays $691 per month for a single employee, and the employee pays $98 per month, while the school district pays $1,596 per month for a family, and the employee pays $230 per month.

Under Option 2A, the school district pays $666 per month for a single employee, and the employee pays $96, while the school district pays $1,540 for a family, and the employee pays $222.

Under Option 2B, the school district pays $626 per month for a single employee, and the employee pays $90 per month, while the school district pays $1,448 per month for a family, and the employee pays $208.

The school district’s insurance consultant, Jeff Steckbauer with M3 Insurance, was recommending a $3,000 deductible for a single employee and a $6,000 deductible for a family, Yingst said.

Yingst said he wanted to increase the deductible incrementally and not all at once.

“The day is coming when the deductible will have to be higher yet,” he said.

“Health insurance is out of control,” Yingst noted.

Members of the Colfax Board of Education agreed that an incremental increase was more desirable.

The Colfax Board of Education voted unanimously to approve the three insurance options for school district employees.

Other business 

In other business, the Colfax Board of Education:

• Approved a contract with SDS Architects for the work of designing the projects approved in the November 8 referendum. The fee is approximately $476,000. SDS comes highly recommended from other school districts, and the fee is actually at the lower end of the scale for architects, Yingst said. The SDS fee is about eight percent. Architect’s fees can range as high as 15 percent of the construction cost, he said.

• Learned that Colfax Elementary students have read more than 36 million words so far this year in Accelerated Reading and that the average quiz score for all students is 90 percent. Research shows that students who score 90 percent or above on their AR quizzes make double the reading gains of students who score lower, said Trevor Hovde, elementary principal. The following students have read more than one million words so far this year: Ella Peterson, Jeannette Hydukovich, Eli Ralph and Kyle Irwin.

• Learned that the junior kindergarten, elementary and middle school Christmas programs will be on December 15.

• Learned that the Colfax High School Christmas concert will be on Monday, December 12, at 7 p.m.

• Learned that Ally Heidorn was selected by the scholarship committee to represent Colfax as the Herb Kohl Nominee. Ally’s application will be reviewed at the next level for consideration to receive one of the one hundred $1,000 scholarships in Wisconsin.