A statewide effort to control health insurance costs for teachers is building steam. The new health insurance trust could form a year ahead of schedule.
When the Montana School Insurance Alliance formed earlier this year, it had a huge task before it: build a health insurance trust that includes roughly half of Montana’s school districts and 12,000 employees before summer 2026.
All three requirements must be met for the trust to earn a $40 million incentive from the state. Here’s the alliance’s new executive director, John Doran.
“Now, those are big numbers, don’t get us wrong,” Doran said. “And, that’s a big challenge for us. But, what we have going for us is that health insurance all across the state — the costs are rising,” said Doran
Doran believes the chance of lowering those costs will incentivize districts to join the insurance pool. His goal is to form the trust by *next summer — a full year before the state’s deadline.
Billings Public Schools chief financial officer Craig VanNice says he’s seen health insurance expenses climb firsthand. The district self-funds its teachers’ insurance plans, and he said some of them saw their premiums rise between 15%–25% last year. VanNice says the district’s insurance reserve fund has fallen sharply since before the pandemic.
“The interest in the state health trust is this idea of, ‘Can that provide some stability going forward?’” VanNice told MTPR in a phone interview.
VanNice, who serves on the trust’s interim board, says an insurance group that encompasses most schools in the state would likely have the power to better control premium costs. He says the board hopes to have enough interest from schools by early next year to convince lawmakers they’re on track to form.
