Missoulian: Tester talks of schools' health insurance rate increases on Senate floor
HELENA – Huge health insurance premium increases at many Montana school districts got some air time on the floor of the U.S. Senate last week, courtesy of Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont.
“In Montana’s Nashua School District, rates are going up 72 percent,” he said in a floor speech March 18. “And the rate given to those employees who purchase family insurance? It’s going up by 83 percent. …
“How much more of their paychecks are Montanans supposed to fork over before Congress finally reforms our broken health care system?”
Three days later, of course, the U.S. House passed a landmark health reform bill that Tester had supported in the Senate, and the U.S. Senate on Thursday passed a companion bill to tweak the main bill.
Obama signed the first bill into law Tuesday and is expected to sign the other measure this week.
The large premium increases for school districts are for districts belonging to the Montana Unified School Trust, which is raising premiums an average of 39 percent this summer. The self-insured pool has had medical claims costs at levels much higher than expected.
MUST insures 19,000 people who work at 230 school districts and related organizations.
