To the Editor:

I am a teacher at Newtown High School and a vice president of the Newtown Federation of Teachers. The opinions in this letter are solely mine and do not represent the views of the teachers at large or the union.

I write to raise questions about the town’s self-funded insurance plan. Town unions were notified last December that due to some large claims, the town’s reserve fund for insurance had a deficit of over $2 million. Right away, union leaders from the various town bargaining units started contacting the finance department to gain clarity about how this came about. We were met with opacity and obfuscation, only being informed that the town was looking into it. For example, we asked for the simple assurance that the deficit was caused entirely by payments of medical claims. Even that simple question remains unanswered. All the while, we were told to be prepared for a large rate increase.

After doing due diligence, the teachers are left with even more questions. First, Anthem told us that they suggested a premium increase of 22% for last year. Newtown elected to increase rates only by 9%. At first glance, we should be happy about this - after all, the premium increase was relatively modest last year. However, we are left to question how much this impacted the ballooning deficit in the town reserve fund. Would there have been a deficit if the town followed Anthem’s advice? If so, what would it have been? In addition, how did the town arrive at the 9% number? The chosen rate increase becomes even more puzzling when one considers that the number and total dollar amount of large claims were almost identical over the last two years.

With the current condition of the fund, the town is unable to shop the insurance to other providers. For example, we are told that Cigna is undercutting everyone, but they won’t touch Newtown’s insurance.

Speaking of this year, the town announced an 18% increase. Anthem told us that they suggested a 3.8% increase. How did the town arrive at 18%? What do they plan to do with the additional 14% of increased premiums?

Next, the town told us that the State insurance plan would be more expensive than our current insurance. Given the choice, I think many town and school employees would opt for it even with higher prices. However, the town told us that they will only offer a stripped down version of the current insurance plan during the next set of contract negotiations. What is the town's plan for making sure we will not continue to increase the fund deficit? Is it to continue to strip down the insurance plan? Perhaps it is time to go to the state insurance, as many surrounding towns have already opted for?

Jacob Thomas

Fairfield