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Senate President Steve Sweeney told a meeting of the New Jersey Principals and Supervisors Association (NJPSA) that he’d like to fold the School Employees' Health Benefits Plan (SEHBP) into the State Health Benefits Plan.
Such a move, he estimated, could save taxpayers about $300 million a year. About 80,000 plan participants could see their premiums lowered by about 25 percent, on average.
The New Jersey Education Association (NJEA), which represents about 170,000 teachers statewide, has doubts about some of Sweeney’s conclusions.
"Simply eliminating that as an option is not necessarily going to automatically save anybody money," said NJEA Executive Director Ed Richardson, "because those employers still have an obligation through their collective bargaining agreements to provide whatever the level of negotiated benefit is."
He insisted the union has gone a long way to help bring health care costs under control for taxpayers and members alike.
"Last fall, we sat with the administration," Richardson added. "We agreed to introduce a new benefit option in the School Employees' program that costs 22 percent less than the Direct 10 program, and on a voluntary basis almost 6,000 educators in the very first open enrollment chose that benefit option."
He’s willing to sit down to negotiate further savings within the current framework.
Sweeney’s proposal would have to be approved by the legislature and the governor to take effect.