Vermilion Parish School health insurance rates set

The Vermilion Parish School Board approved new health insurance rates for its employees.
The school board is now offering two different types of health insurance plans. Each plan has a different monthly premium.
The board is offering a Choice Plus Plan, which is similar to what school employees have now.
The new plan is called a Bronze Plan, which is cheaper than the Choice Plus Plan, but has a higher deductible and co-payments.
But before the school board approved the new rates, new board member Laura LeBeouf wanted to hold off the board adopting the new insurance rates. She said the school board could research and find lower rates.
“With all do respect to the (insurance) team that did research (for insurance rates), I received a lot feed back from my voters that there is a fear they will be paying because of the deductibles,”
said LeBeouf. “I feel coming in as a new board member, I do not have enough information to make a decision.”
LeBeouf then asked if the school board insurance committee could go out and get quotes from three different insurance rates from three different companies. LeBeouf said the public is asking for three separate bids.
“Going in, I can’t make the decision if I am blind, if I do not have all of the information and only the partial information,” she said.
Long-time school board member Anthony Fontana, who led the insurance committee, responded to LeBeouf.
“This is the same process we have followed in the last 20 years,” Fontana said. “This year we have gotten an excellent renewal. There is no increase to retirees. No increase in administration cost and a decrease in some rates.”
Fontana is well aware the deductibles have gone up but he said it is “a compromise.”
When it came to voting on the new premiums, everyone voted for it except LeBeouf. She abstained.
The new rates will go into effect in May of this year.
The school board will spend next month educating school board employees of the new premiums and then they will decide in March which plan they like or do not like.
Here are the premiums for the Choice Plus Plan, which is what a majority of school board employees have.
School employees who have single health insurance coverage will get a rate decrease by $22 a month or $248 a year.
The new health insurance rate per month for a single person will be $240 a month. The old rate was $262.
The bad news for premiums is when it deals with a family. The only rate increase is passed down to insuring a family. The new premium will be $695 a month, which is a $42 a month increase.
The new Bronze Plan, which has higher deductibles, is being offered by the school board for the first time because it is required by the Affordable Care Act.
For a single employee under the Bronze Plan, it will cost $150 a month or $90 less than the Choice Plus Plan.
However, the deductible is $3,500 compared to $750 for the Choice Plus Plan.
To insure a family under the Bronze plan cost $610 a month with a $7,000 deductible.

Monthly Premiums
Here are the new health insurance monthly premiums for school employees from United Health Insurance.

Choice Plus Plan
• Employee only - $240
• Employee & spouse - $505
•Employee & child(ren) - $445
• Family Plan - $695

Bronze Plan
• Employee only - $150
• Employee & spouse - $440
•Employee & child(ren) - $390
• Family Plan - $610