Health Bill to Cost Schools

December 30, 2009

No matter what version of the new national health care plan finally emerges from Congress, Florida will find itself required to pay more of its scarce tax dollars to expand a federal program — Medicaid.

St. Johns County School Board member Beverly Slough said Tuesday that health care already commands the largest portion of the state budget, and more money going to Medicaid means less for Florida’s schools.

"It’s way too early to know how much (this portion of the bill) will cost Florida," Slough said. "But it’s taking us to a shipwreck."

Slough said she wrote to Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum to ask him to investigate whether the health care bill was constitutional. McCollum replied that he had appealed to all attorneys general around the country to do the same.

State Rep. Bill Proctor, R, St. Augustine, said he was not enthusiastic about the bill.

"I think in the long run, it will not be a positive thing for Florida," he said. "It’s going to cost a lot more than we think before it’s over."

Proctor criticized Nebraska’s exemption from Medicaid increases as "buying the vote" of its Sen. Ben Nelson.

He quoted a Wall Street Journal article: &am p;quot;To compare the making of this bill to making sausages is offensive to sausages."

Carla Wright, Slough’s colleague on the School Board, said Tuesday that she and everyone she knows opposed the health care bill.

"It will probably have an effect on how we insure our employees," she said. "We’d be fined $750 per person if we dropped our insurance and went with government insurance. But even paying that fine, government insurance is cheaper."

The district has 3,500 employees whose current policies would be taxed under the new bill as "Cadillac plans."

Slough, a Northwest St. Johns County resident, said the increase in Medicare costs is only part of what she calls "a perfect storm" of financial stressors that will hit the School District in 2010.

"The number of new students was underestimated by the state and by us, so we have to give back $500,000," she said. "We’re prepared for it. But there could be further budget cuts because the state has a big deficit is has to deal with."

Wright said the new health care plan could "bankrupt the state."

"If the state doesn’t have the money, where are they going to cut?" she asked. "They’re going to cut everybody."

Slough predicts a 5 percent drop in state appropriations to the district in 2010 and another 5 percent in 2011.

In addition, the Class Size Amendment takes full effect in 2010, meaning the district may have to hire 100 to 150 more teachers, as well as provide the space for the new classes created.

"There’s no money from the state to fund all that," Slough said. &qu ot;The staff, Superintendent (Joseph Joyner) and the School Board have been so frugal."

On top of all that, 2009 was the last year of stimulus dollars.

"We’re OK for now," she said. "But it’s going to be a tough year. We just have to preserve enough dollars to educate our children."