ASTA in the News: Teachers Need Health Care Reform

posted by: Alix | July 03, 2014, 02:16 PM

Don't miss ASTA Executive Director Dr. Michele Linch sound off on the Arkansas education employee health care debate.

Education reform has been a hot topic in Arkansas. While policymakers champion new and innovative ideas to improve education in the state, it's critical that we strike a delicate balance between common-sense reform, fiscal sanity, and quality of life for our hardworking educators.
Nowhere is this balance more needed than in the current state of health-care benefits for Arkansas' hardworking teachers. According to a recently released survey of teachers by the Arkansas State Teachers Association (ASTA), our state's educators and school employees are suffering greatly under the current cost of health care. Many are spending nearly all of their take-home pay on insurance for themselves and their families.

After listening to consultants and other experts, we believe this crisis was avoidable. It appears while other public-sector industries responded to health-care insurance market changes by shifting to quality, more affordable alternatives, the Employee Benefits Division chose to protect rich plans to the detriment of school employees and taxpayers.

Click here to read the full op-ed on the Arkansas Democrat Gazette website.

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