Bid to raise insurance costs shelved
Agency drops plan to hike premiums for some retired teachers.
The Teacher Retirement System of Texas officially decided Friday to ditch a proposal to raise health insurance premiums for retired teachers under age 65.
The system’s board over the summer had considered raising premiums for about 68,000 retirees and their dependents by $50 a month in 2019. But amid pressure from Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, board members on Friday decided with very little discussion to leave premiums at $200 a month.
“We didn’t want to pass up an opportunity to say thank you for making the decision not to increase premiums at this time on the retirees’ health care program,” Brock Gregg, an associate director with Texas Retired Teachers Association, told the board Friday. “But that is not to say that retirees are happy with their health care program. They’re not.”
The system’s executive director, Brian Guthrie, earlier this week had recommended to a committee
of the board to not raise premiums because the system had negotiated lower rates in its contract with Humana and had realized savings from other contracts. System officials had expected a $410 million shortfall in the 2020-21 budget cycle if premiums did not increase, but the latest estimated shortfall is $238 million.
Guthrie said he also took the possibility of the Legislature ponying up extra money into consideration in his recommendation to the board.
In a letter to the board last month, Patrick had urged members to abandon the planned premium increases, saying the Legislature would try to make up the shortfall. State Sen. Joan Huffman, R-Houston, who has authored major bills affecting retired teachers in the past, sent a similar letter to the board.
During Friday’s meeting, some retired teachers asked the board to further ease their health insurance costs by reducing premiums and deductibles to 2017 levels.
To stave off a $1 billion shortfall last year, the Legislature authorized increasing premiums and deductibles and pared down the number of health plans, including eliminating a $0-premium plan. Amid pressure from retirees, the Legislature, during a special session a few months later, added more money to the system, lowering some costs for retirees. But premiums and deductibles still remained higher, which led 36,000 retired teachers and their dependents to leave the system to find health coverage elsewhere in 2018.
“Do I need to go back to the classroom in order to just live?” retired Cypress teacher Rita Runnels told the board. “I tell myself, ‘No, that’s unfair to you. You’ve spent over 30 years educating the children of Texas. You were well-liked. You deserve to be retired.’”