HCDE to Save $5M By Getting Spouses Off Health Plan

CHATTANOOGA, TN (WDEF-TV) – Employees of Hamilton county schools have had 24 hours now to think about the changes made to their health insurance benefits Thursday night.
The board voted unanimously to force spouses off the plan, if they had access to health insurance on their job or elsewhere.
The school board’s vote was painful for both sides, and complicated by a possible misquote.
The board moved quickly Thursday night to modify their agenda and force spouses out of the school insurance plan.
Sandra Hughes, who runs the Hamilton County Education wondered about the hasty change and mentioned possible phone conversations.
Board member Greg Martin arrived at her office early and challenge her statement.

SANDRA HUGHES, PRESIDENT, HAMILTON CO. EDUCATION ASSOC. "I told Greg that I’d been misquoted in the paper ..And that I was truly sorry because I certainly didn’t imply the board had done anything wrong."

Hughes added—

SANDRA HUGHES "I don’t think they did it anything in the back room, I don’t think they had any private meetings. I think they worked with the information they had."

RHONDA THURMAN "I hope she was misquoted, because that was absolutely not true."

But there were enough hard feelings after the vote despite the misunderstanding.
Thurman made the motion to combine part of "option two" with option one.
It was the one about spouses—and it passed unanimously.

RHONDA THURMAN, SCHOOL BOARD MEMBER "Oh, we had to do something. You know we didn’t have an option 4…that said do nothing."

But Hughes insists the board acted in haste.

SANDRA HUGHES "The district didn’t provide us with any information about what they were trying to do. I just had to get what I could get where I could get it."

Board chairman Mike Evatt’s wife is a teacher.

MIKE EVATT "I do have a heart for these teachers..but when you sit up here as a board member you have to make some very difficult decisions. And a lot of the decisions I’ve made over the last 4 years..impacted myself and my wife."

Spouses who can get insurance elsewhere, will pay a hundred dollars a month to stay on the plan.

The school district is expected to save about 5-million dollars a year, by getting most of the 1500 spouses out of the plan.