Special session won’t spell relief for retired teachers in Texas
Published 8:15 am Wednesday, July 12, 2017
- Apple on desk
AUSTIN — Thousands of retired Texas teachers will face health-insurance costs that more than double starting in January, even though lawmakers partly funded a shortfall during the regular session.
“They could have done a better job of funding the shortfall,” for TRS-Care, the health-insurance program that covers more than 256,000 retired Texas teachers, said Monty Exter, lobbyist for the Association of Texas Professional Educators. “In every instance it either got more expensive, or you got less benefits, or both.”
The association, along with several partner organizations, will rally at the Capitol’s south steps on Monday to focus attention on public-education issues during the special session, which begins the following day.
Public-education issues include a $1,000 pay raise proposal that lacked funding, something critics say districts could be forced to increase class sizes, cut benefits or lay off staff.
Lawmakers this week filed bills that could fund a raise, including one that would feature a $1 billion general-revenue appropriation.
Another bill would tap the state’s rainy day fund to defray the cost of raises.
Also on the radar: a voucher program that would send tax dollars to private schools, which critics say lack regulation.
There’s also a proposal that would prevent teachers from paying professional organization membership dues through payroll deduction.
Teachers charged that lawmakers were singling them out because they’re perceived as liberal.
The insurance-rate hikes doesn’t appear to fit any of Gov. Greg Abbott’s special-session calls, but remains a highly visible rallying point.
And as word of the changes to health-insurance changes spreads, sticker shock is beginning to hit those whom the plan covers.
Under the new rates, TRS-Care premiums for a retired couple over age 65 will increase from $175 per month to $590 month.
“Participants under age 65 have the highest medical costs because TRS-Care is the primary payer for their medical expenses until they become eligible for Medicare,” Texas Comptroller Glen Hegar wrote in a fiscal note.
For retired math teacher Byron Hildebrand, 61, total annual out-of-pocket cost exposure under the new rates would be $12,310 per year, just for himself. “I’m a diabetic,” Hildebrand said. “They’re going to make our lives unaffordable.”
Hildebrand grosses about $39,000 annually in retirement pay after 30 years with San Antonio ISD.
That’s significantly more than the typical retired Texas teacher whose annuity averages $2,000 per month, said Brock Gregg, administrative coordinator for the Texas Retired Teachers Association.
And unlike Hildebrand, who will be eligible for Social Security benefits because his district participated in Social Security, most Texas teachers work for districts that don’t.
Exter said that lawmakers “could have reached in a little deeper,” to cover the state’s shortfall.
“It was a tight budget — if you’re not looking to cut anything out of incentives for special interests or take money out of the rainy day fund,” Exter said.
A 2016 interim study projected the TRS-Care shortfall at $1.3 to $1.5 billion for the 2018-19 biennium, according to the comptroller.
Major TRS-Care shortfall causes include pharmacy costs, emergency room costs, chronic conditions and a TRS-Care population that increased by 3 percent to 6 percent annually since fiscal 2011, according Hegar’s fiscal note.
And the funding stream isn’t tied to the rising cost of health care.
The Texas State Teachers Association supported the changes, even though spokesman Clay Robison said “we didn’t like,” the bill.
“We had to do something or else the whole system was going to crumble,” Robison said. “We’ll come back in two years and do better.”
As for Hildebrand, he’s evaluating insurance options.
“I’ve got to have my medicines,” Hildebrand said. “It’s life and death.”
John Austin covers the Texas Statehouse for CNHI’s newspapers and websites. Reach him at jaustin@cnhi.com.