LANSING, Mich. – The Michigan Education Association’s union-affiliated health insurance company MESSA is turning the screws on union teachers for every cent it can get.

The Michigan Education Special Services Association – which essentially repackages Blue Cross-Blue Shield health insurance and peddles it through the MEA – recently increased health insurance rates for union members in the Grand Blanc school district by 13 percent, starting in July, Mlive.com reports.

“It’s an unexpected increase – coming shortly after teachers agreed to an insurance plan with a higher deductible in an effort to save the school district money,” according to the news site. “The teachers … (are) the largest group in the district that the MESSA rate increase impacts,” with 364 teachers using the union insurance.

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“Insurance payments jumped as much as $58 a month for some teachers,” Mlive reports.

Other school districts around the state are experiencing the same phenomenon, though the rate hike in Grand Blanc is among the largest.

The whole situation is as ironic as it is complicated.

In 2011, Michigan lawmakers imposed limits on the amount local government, school district and other public employers can contribute toward employee health insurance in response to calls from school administrators looking for ways to control runaway labor expenses.

The cap is $15,000 for a family plan, and $5,500 for a single employee, or municipalities and school districts could come up with their own formula, as long as employers pay no more than 80 percent.

The new limits forced school districts and local teachers unions to re-evaluate their allegiance to MESSA insurance, which was negotiated into union contracts in many districts despite its prohibitive cost.

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Teachers in many districts quickly realized that MESSA insurance is a rip-off, and opted to find a better value.

But in districts like Grand Blanc, union officials instead convinced their members to agree to pay more or move to a higher deductable plan to keep the MEA’s MESSA insurance, and now it’s coming back to bite them in the backside.

“Grand Blanc Education Association President Gary Smith’s two big issues with the insurance rate increase is that it’s an increase six months into the plan and it affects the fund equity in the district – which in turn plays a part in whether the teachers – who have had their pay frozen for several years – will see any kind of small pay increase,” Mlive reports.

“We’re paying more out of pocket at a time when we’re making less money,” Smith told the news site.

In Grand Blanc, the union contract ties across-the-board percentage raises for teachers to the district’s fund balance, and the MESSA rate hike will subtract $446,000 from that balance. That means it’s less likely the district will reach the fund balance threshold necessary to trigger a raise for teachers.

In other words, the union’s pet insurance company is essentially robbing Grand Blanc teachers of any chance at a raise, which is on top of the extra $58 per month that will be taken from teachers’ checks and transferred to MESSA.

School officials tried to reason with MESSA and MEA officials about the rate hike, but got nowhere. MESSA officials are offering a lame excuse for why Grand Blanc’s insurance rates skyrocketed, but that’s about it. Other area school districts are facing rate hikes in the 7 to 10 percent range, Mlive reports.

The worst part is MESSA could do the same thing next year, as the Grand Blanc teachers union contract locks the insurance company in as the health coverage provider for its members until at least December 2015.

Mlive commenter GBFamilyman summed up the situation quite succinctly:

“MESSA is well known as an uncompetitive insurance product in the health care market place. It should come as no surprise that MESSA came back with an uncompetitive increase six months into the plan,” he wrote.

“I hope the administration and teachers really go to market for health care and compare quotes. They need to end their loyalty to MESSA, when MESSA obviously has no loyalty to them.”