In response to an unexpectedly high number of medical and pharmacy claims from teachers, SchoolCare asked New Hampshire school districts to cover the gap for employee health care. What this means for the future of our education system is concerning.
SchoolCare is a nonprofit health benefit program founded to provide teachers in N.H. with necessary health coverage. SchoolCare represents around 8,300 subscribers across nearly 90 school districts and towns in N.H. Teachers around the state have reported having higher co-pays for common medical visits, meaning that this coverage is greatly important.
Pamela Walsh, president of the Concord Board of Education, said in an interview with WMUR9 that the $2 million her district was responsible for was a “big surprise.” Walsh also said, “My understanding is that it’s equivalent to a month and a half of premiums, which is a lot of money coming a quarter of the way through the fiscal year.” SchoolCare’s response details how each district will be expected to pay, like Walsh stated, around a month and a half of contributions. The program assured that “the assessment is a responsible, data-driven action consistent with SchoolCare’s role as a member-governed, self-insured pool.”
The higher co-pays can be partly attributed to the expiration of enhanced Affordable Care Act (ACA) tax credits, which were introduced during the COVID-19 pandemic. In an analysis published by the Peterson-KFF Health System Tracker, if ACA tax credits are not renewed, premium payments for subsidized enrollees is estimated to increase by over 75% by January 2026. Paying an exorbitant fee seemingly out of nowhere is reason enough for raised eyebrows, and the inevitable increase in premiums is more pertinent to SchoolCare’s decision to ask school districts to cover what they cannot.
With the shutdown of the U.S. Department of Education and subsequent reallocation of funds, things should be looked at more closely. The department is responsible not only for distributing federal funds to school districts, but also for overseeing whether states use those funds properly. Federal funding makes up 14% of public-school budgets, and with even less money to work with, public-school districts in N.H. that need to be able to pay SchoolCare for reliable employer and employee benefits are already off to a rough start.
Diesel Trickey can be contacted at
dtrickey@kscequinox.com
