Vermilion Parish School Employees have to decision to make about health insurance

Retired and active school employees are going to have a decision to make when it comes to deciding which type of health insurance plan they want.
The School Board Health Insurance Committee will look over proposals from United Health Care Insurance at Monday’s committee meeting and select the best plan for active and retired school employees.
Then at Wednesday’s school board meeting, the entire school board will decide how to fund the new insurance plans and determine how much each school employee and retired employee will pay for certain insurance coverage.
This past Thursday a group of retired teachers, who are on Medicare, met with three school board members, Superintendent Jerome Puyau and school board CFO Phil Sellers at the Abbeville library.
The three board members at the meeting were Sara Duplechain, Luddy Herpin and Laura LeBeouf.
There were about 30 retired teachers, including retired Superintendent Randy Schexnayder, on hand to listen to Sellers and Puyau.
Those on Medicare Insurance, who are 65 and older, use the school board health insurance to pay the 20 percent of what Medicare Insurance does not cover.
The retired teachers had heard rumors that their school insurance, United Health Care, premiums may be doubling or they are being kicked off the school insurance.
Puyau informed the retired employees that they will
continue to have United Health Care and Vermilion School Board Insurance as their premium insurance.
But, as a way to lower health insurance premiums for retired teachers on Medicare, Sellers told the retired teachers that United Health Care is offering a AARP supplement insurance package.
The supplement package is for retired employees who qualify and have a Medicare A & B policy.
The supplement package is expected to have the same benefits as what the retired teachers are getting today, Sellers explained. What he could not inform the group on was the amount of their new premium, whether the board approves the AARP supplement plan or they stay with the plan they have today.
The school board insurance committee will get that information at Monday’s committee meeting.
After hearing the cost, the school board insurance committee will have to decide if all retired school employees on Medicare A&B will receive the AARP supplement plan or if none will. It will not be left up to each retired individual to decide.