The president of the Glendale Teachers Assn., which has resisted proposals to cap health benefits, accused the district of using the initial numbers as a ploy to criticize the union’s position.
“[It’s] to try and put pressure on the teachers to accept a health benefits cap, which unfortunately we cannot afford because we are among the lowest-paid teachers in Los Angeles County,” union President Tami Carlson said. “Initial offers are initial — they can always be negotiated down, and always have. We have never, ever paid the initial renewal.”
Rising premiums reflect greater use and cost of medical care for Glendale Unified employees, said Erica Perng, a Blue Shield spokeswoman.
“The premiums we collect go directly toward paying for our members’ health-care services,” she said in an e-mail. “As the cost of hospital care, prescription drugs and medical devices continue to skyrocket, we must adjust our rates to make sure that we’re bringing in enough money in premiums to cover what we pay in claims.”
The district had sought to save $3.8 million annually through negotiations with the teachers union, but that figure is now outdated, said Assistant Supt. for Human Resources John Garcia.
“If we got everything we wanted [in negotiations], we’d still be $10 million short in 2012-13, [and] what this does is exacerbates that number,” he said. “This is a changed circumstance, and this has to be accounted for during the mediation process.”
Even if the district manages to negotiate down the rate increase by one or two percentage points, it wouldn’t be enough to bridge the gap, administrators said, although Carlson disagreed with that assessment.
“I am certain that through negotiations through our broker that we pay a hefty fee for, we will come in with [what] the district budgeted,” Carlson said.
Both sides are scheduled to meet for the second and potentially last mediation session April 16. Mediation could continue, or the government-appointed troubleshooter could move the process to a nonbinding fact-finding mission.
Insurance companies raise rates for a number of variables, and Lueck said Blue Shield had lost money insuring Glendale Unified employees last year.
A provision in the new federal health-care law requiring employers to cover their workers’ children up to age 26 would likely factor into a rate increase next year, Lueck said.
