Mackinac Center posts school health insurance information

 

Center posts database of school district employee insurance costs in more than 500 Michigan districts

School leaders might want to check the accuracy of the data reported in a new online database posted at www.michiganschooldatabases.org. Then they might want to explore the possible money-saving options being modeled by other Michigan districts.

More than 95 percent of Michigan school districts’ 2008-09 health insurance costs are available online, Mackinac Center Director of Education Policy Michael Van Beek announced earlier this month. The database contains information reported directly from schools on all their employer-provided health insurance plans. Details include the plan provider, plan title, monthly premium costs, employee contributions and number of enrollees.

“District-provided employee insurance costs Michigan schools nearly $2 billion per year,” Van Beek said in a prepared release. “This database provides many important details about how that money is being spent at the district level.”

The center reports that a majority of school districts complied with Freedom of Information Act requests in a timely manner. Some districts limit their contribution to monthly premiums and allow employees to choose from a number of plans. The employees then pay the difference between the premium of the plan they choose and the district’s contribution. Several larger districts are partially or completely self-insured, which enables them to control costs by paying only for actual claims made by employees.

“Rising health insurance costs combined with declining enrollment and state-based tax revenue makes it imperative for schools to explore new ways of reducing employee insurance costs,” Van Beek said in his release. “This database can assist school districts in that endeavor.”

The online database can be found at: http://www.michiganschooldatabases.org.