GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (Michigan News Source) – Grand Rapids Public Schools stated the union-promoted health insurance provider it has for its employees had a “substantial” increase of 12% to 14% that will take effect in January.

The MESSA plan.

Like hundreds of school districts around the state, the Grand Rapids district has the MESSA plan. MESSA is the health care plan of choice for the Michigan Education Association, which negotiates benefits with school districts.

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The Grand Rapids school board received a report in October that laid out the growing expenses of insurance. But it is a cost that is being felt across the state.

For example, Traverse City’s public school district also offers the MESSA insurance plan. Its employee insurance costs have increased from $9.95 million in 2014 to $14.26 million in 2023, a 43% increase over the last nine years.
School districts have several options when considering how to provide health insurance for its employees.

Shopping for insurance is a group effort.

The Western Michigan Health Insurance pool is a group of municipalities, school districts and colleges that pool their resources together and shop for insurance. It includes 121 school districts, 57 municipalities and eight community colleges.

According to the Grand Rapids school district, members of the Western Michigan Health Insurance Pool will have a 7.2% increase in rates in 2025.

Two options are on the table.

School districts can select two options with how to determine how much they will pay for employee health insurance. One option is the 80%-to-20% cost sharing where the school district picks up 80% of the cost. The other option is called the “hard cap” where the district adopts a cost set by state law and does not pay any cost over the cap.

The Grand Rapids district stated that the hard cap increase in cost was just 0.2% for 2025. The Grand Rapids district memo stated the district could consider moving from its hard-cap option to the 80%-20% cost-sharing option but said that was more difficult to budget for because the costs varied from year-to-year.

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MESSA and Grand Rapids Public Schools didn’t respond to an email seeking comment.