Middletown city schools receive authorization to create self-funded health insurance for employees

Dec. 17--MIDDLETOWN -- The Enlarged City School District of Middletown now has authorization to create a health insurance reserve fund, which is estimated to save the district $3.4 million, according to a press release from Sen. Jen Metzger's office.

The district's Board of Education voted to leave Orange-Ulster Health Care Consortium to self-fund its employees' health insurance due to the "substantial projected savings," according to a statement from Metzger's office.

"This legislation is about fiscal prudence, and the school district can now take the proactive steps it wants to take to manage a self-funded insurance program to the benefit of taxpayers," Metzger stated.

Legislation introduced by Metzger was signed into law Nov. 20, enabling the district to set aside money from the self-insurance program in a reserve fund to manage year-to-year claims variations.

Schools Superintendent Richard Del Moro thanked Metzger, Governor Andrew Cuomo and the state legislature in a statement for their support of this initiative.

"The passage of a health reserve fund is a tremendous relief to the ECSDM community as it ensures the district's ability to continue to cover the cost of catastrophic medical bills without increasing the tax burden to our school community, as well as maintaining reasonable health insurance employee contributions," Del Moro stated.

Other schools that have authorization to create similar funds include the Scarsdale Union Free SChool District, the Vernon Verona Sherrill Central School District, and the Minisink Valley Central School District, according to the statement.

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