Cape Girardeau School Board's health-insurance choices

Options for consideration by the board Thursday night, according to an email, were:n Keep the current plan and absorb the full premium increase (about $640,000 annualized). Smee said the school's budget only allowed for an 8 percent increase.

* Keep the current plan, cap the employer contribution and charge every employee the difference.

* Increase deductibles, co-pays and reduce plan benefits to keep the district premium in check. "This would have eliminated a zero cost option to our employees, and penalized everyone much more than the $40 per month it would cost them to buy into the full network to include St. Francis," board president Tony Smee said. He said this option did nothing to reduce costs, but shifted the burden to employees.

* Switch to Coventry. The district had been with Coventry, but the district "had many problems with covered procedures and prescriptions," Smee wrote.

* Switch to United, which Smee said excludes Saint Francis without the possibility for a full-coverage "buy-up." The board did not feel this was fair to employees who use Saint Francis providers.

* Take advantage of the narrow network plan using Southeast Health as the primary provider, while allowing employees who prefer Saint Francis providers to buy up to full coverage to include Saint Francis for $40 a month.

-- The Southeast Missourian