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OSSTF District 11- Thames Valley
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District 11 Office |
Education Matters Online
News
Volume 1, Issue 1: April 7, 2003
Managing Our Benefits CostsBy Don Edgar, Federation Services Officer |
The rising cost of benefits is a concern to all of us and the issue is being addressed on an ongoing basis by OSSTF locally and provincially, and by the board. While these discussions continue, what can each of us do to help keep benefit costs to a minimum?
The manner in which each of us views the use of benefits may be a key element in keeping costs down. In the past, many of us have accessed our benefits as if they were an entitlement, using them freely. However, today's reality is a different one; the cost of drugs alone has risen approximately seventeen per cent annually for the last three years, and these increases from the pharmaceutical companies are, of course, passed indirectly on to us, the consumers. The carrier bills the employer for all costs charged to the plan, rate hikes ensue, and you pay more for your premiums. Because extended health and dental benefit plans are cost recovery based and not insurance based, plan usage which exceeds the amount of dollars allocated to benefits results in a deficit. This is one of the major reasons why, until the recent ratification of the contract extension, secondary teachers were contributing thirty per cent of the projected cost of the plan.
That said, even though the board is now paying 100% of the cost of the premium, we should continue to be prudent users of the benefit plan. Indeed, a form of enlightened consumerism may be one of the key areas in which to focus our efforts to keep costs down. For example, glasses are available every two years but to buy them when they are not yet needed just because the two years is up is not good consumerism. Since we are all in a very real sense consumers when it comes to using benefits, is it not in our mutual interest to be as astute consumers as possible? Each time that we make a benefit claim, we are spending our own money.
Benefit plans are of fundamental importance to us all. We need them and will continue to need them, but they are increasingly more expensive across the province. To help keep your premium costs down, please consider being as good a consumer of your plan as possible. By making claims that are well thought out from an enlightened consumer's perspective, we can all help preserve the plan at as low a cost as possible.
