By Eric Stevick

Herald Writer

EVERETT — When Cris Larson heard that medical insurance rates were going to rise for employees in the Everett School District, he braced himself.

"I thought, what’s the worst they can do? Double?" said Larson, who teaches a block class of reading, language arts and American history at Gateway Middle School.

To maintain his family’s medical coverage and other benefits, such as long-term disability and dental and life insurance, his rates will increase nine-fold.

It would be the equivalent of more than a $4,000-a-year pay cut.

Last year, he paid about $45 a month. His new monthly cost: $414.

"I tell everyone, ‘They can’t do that.’ They can’t do that, but they are doing it," Larson said.

The Everett School Employee Benefit Trust, a districtwide insurance pool operated by administrators and union members, has overseen the district’s medical insurance program for 15 years.

In many ways, the Everett School District is a microcosm of national trends in health care insurance. Only its increases are disproportionate to rising costs elsewhere, several employees say.

The Everett trust attributes the steep rise in employee costs to a variety of factors, including higher fees to medical providers, increasing costs of prescriptions, larger medical claims and greater use of medical services.

Those factors meant the trust was paying out an average monthly cost of $200,000 more than premiums received last year. The drop in reserves, in turn, affects the interest the trust had to invest.

"It was sticker shock," said Kim Mead, president of the Everett Education Association, which represents roughly 1,100 teacher employees.

She and her husband, also an Everett teacher, expected to sign up for a plan that would provide less coverage but still cost more.

"Hopefully this is an aberration," said Jeff Riddle, deputy school district superintendent who is part of the six-member trust board. "We will probably never get back to as low as they were but we hope to get back."

"Our rates are still not out of line with what employees could get elsewhere," Riddle said. "When you start looking at them, we were in the ballpark."

Even so, Riddle said, "this is a legitimate frustration."

In recent weeks, school district employees have been weighing their options from total coverage at the highest costs to lower benefit levels that cost less.

Joann Gutzmer, a fifth-grade teacher at Silver Lake Elementary School, believes many teachers will opt for lower-priced benefit packages to keep their own doctors while others may choose to rely on a spouse’s insurance.

"The idea of changing doctors to get a different insurance company is very, very intimidating," Gutzmer said.

She said she particularly worries about part-time employees with low-paying jobs whose insurance costs will skyrocket.

Mead said the union has been able to concentrate on pay and classroom issues in past negotiations. But medical coverage will be added to the bargaining list when the new labor contract is negotiated next year.

"Obviously it is something we are going to have to look at in the next round of bargaining," Mead said.

You can call Herald Writer Eric Stevick at 425-339-3446 or send e-mail to stevick@heraldnet.com.