Muskego-Norway School District OKs pay for those who opt out of health plan

The least expensive of three options to encourage employees to opt out of the Muskego-Norway School District health insurance plan won approval from the School Board on Monday night.

The district will continue to pay employees 87.4 percent of the premium for single coverage if they take insurance from the employer of a working spouse. That will come to about $6,900 next year.

The cost is sizable, but it has been shown to save money for the district, said board member Brett Hyde.

The other two options the board considered were to keep the opt-out payment at the current $8,400 or to reduce it slightly to $8,200.

The reason next year's opt-out payment would be so much smaller than this year is because the tab for health insurance will go down. That is because the schools will move to a different insurance carrier and because of changes to the health plan itself.

So, 87.4 percent of the lower premiums comes to a much lower dollar figure.