Washington State

House of Representatives

Office of Program Research

BILL

ANALYSIS

Appropriations Committee

HB 2755

This analysis was prepared by non-partisan legislative staff for the use of legislative members in their deliberations. This analysis is not a part of the legislation nor does it constitute a statement of legislative intent.

Brief Description: Addressing employee benefits provided by the school employees' benefits board.

Sponsors: Representatives Stonier, Macri, Appleton, Pollet, Harris, Irwin, Sells, Condotta, Vick, Kirby, Bergquist, Gregerson, Doglio, Tharinger and Steele.

Brief Summary of Bill

  • Conditions required school district participation in the School Employees' Benefits Board (SEBB) upon meeting requirements in the Basic Education Funding Act of 2017.

  • Permits school districts to offer benefits outside the SEBB after January 1, 2020, if the district offers benefits of a generally equivalent actuarial value, and at a generally equivalent cost to those offered by the SEBB, and the school district has greater than 1,000 eligible employees, or is purchasing through a trust, interlocal, or association plan.

Hearing Date: 1/25/18

Staff: David Pringle (786-7310).

Background:

In 2017 the Legislature created the nine-member School Employees' Benefits Board (SEBB) with the enactment of Engrossed House Bill (EHB) 2242 (Basic Education Funding).  Under this bill, beginning January 1, 2020, all public schools must provide health care and related benefits to employees through the SEBB program, administered by the Health Care Authority (HCA).

The state allocates funding to each school district for employee fringe benefits such as health care and for the cost to districts of covering retiree health care for state-funded K-12 staff units. Although the state allocates the funding, prior to EHB 2242 and until January 1, 2020, each district purchases health benefits separately and bargains locally with its employees regarding the specific benefits package. Employee and employer contributions vary by district, and by bargaining units within districts.

A legislatively mandated study by the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Committee (JLARC) completed in 2016 indicated that the share of the costs of coverage paid by school district employees who insure only themselves was typically much lower than for those who also insure their family members.  The JLARC study also concluded that while slight improvement was made toward goals set by the Legislature in 2012 to achieve greater equity between individual and family premiums, targets set by the Legislature were unmet.

The SEBB's membership consists of:

The SEBB's responsibilities include:

In addition to consolidating health care purchasing for school district employees, EHB 2242 also removed medical, dental, vision, and other basic and optional insurance benefits from the scope of local school district bargaining.  Similarly to how state employees bargain for health care, health benefit provisions will be bargained between the Governor or the Governor's designee and one coalition of all the exclusive bargaining representatives impacted by benefit purchasing with the SEBB. Bargaining must be initiated after July 1, 2018.

Summary of Bill:

In order for the requirement that public school employers provide health care benefits through the SEBB to go into effect the requirements in EHB 2242 must first be met. 

A school district or education service district may be exempt from the requirements to provide health care coverage through the SEBB if the following requirements are met:

Appropriation: None.

Fiscal Note: Preliminary fiscal note available.

Effective Date: The bill takes effect 90 days after adjournment of the session in which the bill is passed.