Abilene ISD trustees opt to leave Teacher Retirement health insurance

Abilene Independent School District trustees voted to remove the district from its longtime health insurance provider.

The Teacher Retirement System's Active Care program will not be the district's primary health insurance provider for at least the next five years after action taken Monday.

The decision, required by law to take place before Dec. 31, is effective Sept. 1.

Trustees voted 7-0 to make the switch.

For the past couple years, AISD and other Texas school districts enrolled in the TRS program have been able to offer employees a second option.

Currently, AISD is roughly 50% TRS and 50% Aetna, the district's current second choice this year.

But state lawmakers this past spring changed rules, ending the ability to carry TRS and an additional provider. Rules also set the five-year period districts must be out of TRS if they choose to leave, as AISD will do.

Alison Sims, the district's associate superintendent for human resources, said the district's confident there are alternative options available after hearing from HUB International, a company the district contracted to study leaving TRS earlier this year.

Another factor in making the decision, school board president Daryl Zeller said, was prescription drug costs.

Zeller said employee responses to a recent survey indicated drugs were a significant factor when making choices, and the TRS Active Care options lagged behind what the district was able to see from private insurers.

While the employee side is affected by features like prescription drug costs, Zeller said cost also played a factor. Especially, he said, that some of the providers the district contacted in researching suggested multi-year cost increase caps are available.

AISD pays a significant portion of employee insurance, about $410 per month, Zeller said. So, price is a major factor for decisions, too.

"When we started looking at this ... we thought this was going to be a tough decision," Zeller said after the meeting concluded. "But when we started researching, the quality of the products out there, the caps the companies were willing to give us, a three-year cap on increases, it made it evident the market helped us make this decision."