Letter to the editor: District’s health care proposal is too expensive

Published 9:30 pm Thursday, August 15, 2019

I am tired of seeing only part of the information about the school district negotiations reported in the news.

There is a reason the teachers and school employees negotiation teams said no to the school district’s proposed health care plan.

Plan B had an individual deductible of $2,500 and family deductible of $5,000. On top of that, the school district wanted to begin to have a $1,500 individual, $3,000 family, prescription deduction. The cost of this plan to employees was $402 a month for nine-month employees, which is most of the employees.

Plan C had a $3,000 individual deduction and $6,000 family deductible. With the same prescription deductible as Plan B. All this for a cost of $418 a month for nine-month employees.

This is the same health care plan that Fairbanks school employees receive for $0.

For most of the lowest paid employees, and perhaps many others, the high deductibles were too high and would cause people to not use their health care benefits. What good is health care that you can not afford to use?

— Cynthia Avery

Soldotna