BUFFALO SCHOOLS
BTF takes action on health insurance
The Buffalo Teachers Federation is seeking a contempt-of-court ruling against Buffalo school officials — along with millions of dollars in fines — for failing to restore multiple-carrier health insurance plans as ordered by four previous administrative and legal decisions.
In court papers filed Thursday, the BTF asks that the school system be fined as much as $40 million — the amount it has saved by unilaterally switching to a single carrier — and that those funds be distributed to teachers “whose right of choice was taken away.”
The State Supreme Court contempt proceeding, scheduled to be heard Jan. 13, appears certain to prolong what has already been three years of legal battles over the single-carrier issue and to remain a larger source of friction between the district and its teachers.
Officials of the school system declined to comment Thursday but said previously that their single- carrier plan has saved the system more than $40 million while providing teachers medical coverage identical to what they previously received.
In a letter to the BTF last month, an attorney representing the district said the plans the BTF is seeking to restore are no longer offered by the insurance companies.
Instead, school officials said, they are prepared to restore multiple- carrier plans for teachers by using a self-insurance system that they say would be $8 million a year cheaper than the policies the teachers union wants reinstated.
Since 2006, an arbitrator and three separate court rulings have directed school officials to restore the multiple-carrier options, since any changes in health insurance must be negotiated with the BTF and not imposed without the union’s consent.
BTF President Philip Rumore said Thursday that the union is willing to negotiate a single-carrier plan but will continue to fight a unilateral change by the district.
The BTF papers filed Thursday also say that:
• Insurance companies are required by the state to implement certain mandated benefits, but self-insurance plans are not.
• A denial of benefits by an insurance company can be appealed to the state Department of Insurance, but a denial by a self-insurance plan cannot.
As a result, the BTF says, the district’s self-insurance proposal is “an extension of its initial tactic to avoid its obligation under law to negotiate contract changes, to breach its already negotiated [agreement] and deprive the teachers of their contractually provided health-care options.”
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