OEBB & Healthcare in Oregon
FAQ - Creating OEBB - Healthcare in Oregon - Resources
Skyrocketing healthcare costs affect all Oregon families and businesses and also drain resources from Oregon's school districts and community colleges. Many are seeking to transfer the burden of rapid healthcare cost inflation to education employees. OEA believes education professionals deserve adequate compensation and benefits.
During the 2007 Oregon Legislature, OEA worked with a broad coalition to pass Senate Bill 426, which established a statewide health insurance savings pool for public education employees.
The governing body of this savings pool is the 10 members of the Oregon Educators Benefit Board (OEBB), which evaluates, negotiates, and develops healthcare plans for Oregon's public education employees.
OEBB's website includes:
- Welness Resources
- Plan Enhancements and Changes
- New Tiers & Copayments
- New Weight Management Benefit
OEBB Frequently Asked Questions
Why OEBB?
Skyrocketing healthcare costs affect all Oregon families and businesses. Experts have projected that if nothing is done to manage these costs increases, healthcare will cost Oregon school districts over $1 billion in five years. During its 2007 session, the Oregon Legislature had a unique opportunity to address this crisis, save taxpayers dollars, and put more money where it belongs-in the classroom. Their answer was Senate Bill 426, which created the Oregon Educators Benefit Board (OEBB) to govern a health insurance savings pool for school employees.
How It Works
Smart shoppers know that when you buy in bulk you save money. And when you pool your money together to make a purchase, you get more bang for your buck. That's the principle behind the savings pool OEBB establishes. This new system will help school districts to save money on health insurance by pooling resources and purchasing healthcare service in bulk. It will eliminate duplication, reduce administrative costs and cut out the middleman. The State of Oregon already sees the benefit of this concept with the Oregon Prescription Drug program. This bulk drug purchasing program encourages competition while lowering costs for consumers.
How Does OEBB Protect Employee Benefits?
The legislation creating OEBB guarantees that the plan will initially provide school districts with a comparable benefit at a comparable cost to what they had before joining the pool. Most insurance carriers will only write an insurance contract for one year. This is true for big districts, small districts, and those currently in a voluntary trust like OSBA or OEA Choice. The legislation guarantees a second year at the same rate or better with level benefits. This guarantees that hard working school district employees will not see their benefits reduced.
A formal bid process for school district health insurance plans will encourage competition and transparency among carriers. This actually provides more local control by freeing money that would have gone to insurance brokers and special interests that the district can then invest into the classroom according to agreements at the bargaining table.
Will Community Colleges Benefit?
This is a great plan for Community colleges if they choose to join. Community colleges may "opt-in" to the health insurance pool. The reason community colleges are allowed to "opt-in" is because many of them already participate in health insurance pools with cities and counties for the purpose of saving money on health insurance.
Will Part-Time Employees Benefit?
While it is up to the local bargaining table to determine how much the district will pay and how much the employee will pay, employees that are .5 FTE or better are eligible for benefits. Employees that are less than .5 FTE can receive coverage if it is allowed under the local collective bargaining agreement.
How Are School Employees Represented on OEBB?
Just like the local bargaining table, the OEBB has an equal number of management members and labor representatives. The ten board members include four management members, four education employees represented by labor, and two members with expertise in health policy or risk management.
The purpose of this division is to ensure that both management and labor share responsibility in plan design and benefit packages with input from experts in the healthcare field, just like they do at the local level.
Creating OEBB
- Overview of OEBB (PDF, 180K)
- Estimated savings by district size: (PDF, 24K)
- Final text of SB 426: (PDF, 54K)
- OEA history on health insurance pooling - February 2007: (PDF, 64K)
OEBB is Enforceable
- Department of Justice Letter on SB 426, Febuary, 2007 (PDF, 108K)
- Letter from Greg Hartman, Attorney (PDF, 89K)
Actuarial Studies on Pooling:
- 2007 Oregon actuarial study by Watson Wyatt Worldwide (PDF, 424K)
- 2005 Michigan study: (PDF, 93K)
- 2004 Pennsylvania study: (PDF, 727K)
- 2004 Minnesota study: (PDF, 1.4 MB)
- 2003 Oregon Legislative actuarial study by AON Consulting (PDF 1.9MB)
- 2003 OSBA actuarial information (PDF, 416K)
Health Care in Oregon
- Fact sheet on district self-insurance
- "Behind Oregon's Health Care Crisis" by Oregonians for Health Security - February 2004: (PDF, 3.6MB)
- "The Health Care Crisis" by Oregonians for Health Security (PowerPoint, 1.3MB)
Web resources on managing the cost of health care
- Oregonians for Health Security
- National Academy for State Health Policy
- Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services
- National Conference of State Legislatures
- Oregon Hospital Quality Indicators Project
- Oregon PricePoint System
- The Leapfrog Group
- Medicare Hospital Compare
