Westport’s Superintendent, Thomas Scarice, attributes an “unprecedented” surge in health insurance claims as a primary factor behind the proposed 8.83 percent school budget hike. Scarice warns that this increase not only impacts the budget but poses challenges to staffing requests.
In 2022, the school district transitioned from a state insurance plan to a high-deductible plan with Aetna to mitigate projected rate increases from the state. However, Scarice now reveals that the district is anticipating a staggering 40-45 percent surge in health insurance rates under the private plan.
Scarice’s proposed 2024-2025 budget, released last week, stands at $148.3 million, marking a substantial increase of over $12 million from the current budget. The expected insurance budget reaches nearly $25.8 million, an approximately $8 million uptick from the current year. Employee benefits contribute to 5.93 percent of the overall 8.83 percent budget increase.
While the district experienced cost savings in the initial two years with the private health plan, Scarice points out that a “unprecedented level of high claims” by staff is driving the projected boost.
Scarice acknowledges the challenging stories behind these claims, impacting employees significantly. The surge in claims has resulted in a staggering 45.5 percent increase in the health benefits budget line.
Westport’s 45.5 percent increase in the current insurance budget surpasses proposed hikes in neighboring towns, such as Fairfield’s 6.24 percent increase, Norwalk’s seven percent, and Weston’s 6.2 percent.
Scarice, in an email to CT Examiner, highlights that the substantial increase impedes his ability to include personnel requests in the budget. These requests encompass two assistant principals at the elementary level, a high school math coach, a communications specialist, a part-time health teacher, one curriculum coordination support staff member for curriculum coordinators, and a project coordinator.
“If the health care budget was carved out, the rest of the budget is only a 2.9% increase,” Scarice notes. “In order to keep the rest of the budget this low, we did not include the addition of personnel requests that were considered.”
Despite enjoying an eight percent decrease in health care costs during the switch to Aetna in 2022 and a 14 percent cap on rate increases last year, the estimated 40-45 percent jump in costs for Westport schools exceeds the state’s latest projections.
While Scarice initially welcomed the district’s switch to a high-deductible plan as a means to avoid the looming state increase in early 2023, recent information from the Office of the State Comptroller indicates that the actual increase for enrolled groups starting July 2023 was 7.2 percent. For July 2024, the state projects a “very modest” increase between one and five percent, citing reduced utilization of the state plan and decreased pharmaceutical costs.
