MADISON, Wis. – We have no idea why any Wisconsin school district would purchase insurance from WEA Trust.

Apparently some school board members have very short memories.

WEA Trust recently announced that it will be providing health insurance coverage for several more districts around the state, including Random Lake, Waupun, Wisconsin Rapids, Two Rivers and Kenosha Unified.

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We suppose that makes sense, since there is a new open market for school insurance in Wisconsin and WEA Trust has finally been forced to adjust its rates to compete with other insurers.

That means schools can finally afford WEA Trust insurance. That wasn’t always the case.

For years local  teachers unions pressured local school boards into purchasing employee health coverage from WEA Trust, which was established and maintains close ties with the Wisconsin Education Association Council, the state’s largest teachers union.

That pressure allowed the company to charge very high prices for the coverage, a cost that proved overwhelming for many school districts throughout the years.

Fortunately the passage of Act 10 in 2011 took health insurance off the collective bargaining table, allowing school boards to shop the market for the most affordable coverage without union interference.

Many school districts quickly dumped WEA Trust and signed on with other companies for much lower premiums. EAGnews recently published a report about the new school insurance market in Wisconsin, titled “First Years of Freedom: Wisconsin Schools Saving Millions on Health Insurance in the Act 10 Era.”

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While it’s true that WEA Trust is now offering more competitive pricing, we doubt that would be the case if Act 10 had not become law.

There’s also the matter of the still-pending federal lawsuit against WEA Trust, filed by 150 Wisconsin school districts, because the company failed to deliver federal grant dollars that were supposedly meant to help the districts cover the cost of employee health coverage.

The lawsuit claims that WEA Trust applied for the grants on behalf of the districts, which were clients at the time. But then Act 10 became law, the districts fled to other insurance companies, and suddenly WEA Trust refused to turn over the federal dollars, the plaintiffs contend.

“The districts maintain that the insurer withheld the funds in an attempt to ‘coerce’ them into signing new contracts,” according to LivingLakeCountry.com.

Given WEA Trust’s history of charging high insurance premiums, and the possibility it improperly withheld federal funds from school districts, it’s hard to believe that any school boards would do want anything to do with the company.

Taxpayers in these districts would be wise to contact their school board members and ask them if they understand what type of company they’re dealing with. Perhaps there are a few board members out there who really don’t follow the news very closely at all.