I am not a Christie fan but I will give him credit for trying to reel in the unsustainable pension and medical benefits public employees receive. it has to change. I don’t think it is right that money was diverted from the teacher’s pension fund starting with Christie Whitman and that has to be repaid. For heaven’s sake, it is time to freeze pensions and move onto 401K style plans and keep medical costs in line with what private sector receives. Long gone are the days when public employee salaries were lower than the private sector so delayed remuneration in the form of pensions, etc. made up the difference. As for Ridgewood’s current travesty with the NJEA and our BOE – I’m just sick. I wish all these complaining teachers could be replaced. And, yes, I’m one of those who wears the cloak of anonymity because I have kids in school and I know the teachers retaliate. Many are not as dedicated to their students and the field of education as they profess.
Average private sector wage increases for 2015 were above 3%. Pay raises for people with college degrees are fairing even better than that. Are there people who aren’t seeing wage increases? Yes. But perhaps that says something about the person or the job rather than the economy. Teachers have been taking home less money each year for a number of years. Teachers will never get bonuses, no matter how good the economy gets. Teachers will never get company cars, club memberships, or any other perks that are seen in the private sector. Teachers will NEVER get anything more than a mediocre pay raise because of the 2% cap. So when teachers fight for the scraps from the table it shouldn’t be a surprise.
Do you really want to devalue the profession to the point that nobody will ever want to be a teacher? There is already a teacher shortage, which will only get worse.
But keep up with the lies about teachers who don’t care. Teachers who earn $200,000 a year. Teachers who won’t write recommendations. Teachers who only work 181 days a year. Teachers who only care about taking from taxpayers while doing nothing. Keep up with these lies and tell the potential future teachers that it is not the best career path. Why would anyone subject themselves to such outright lies and hatred?
Reader responds …..What planet are you on???? Private sector wage increases above 3%??? Please provide your source because no one I know got more 3%. I got 1.5% after 4 years of 0%. My wife got 2% after getting .5% last year and 0% fand additional 4 years. Really, name your source. Everyone is taking home less and bonuses have shrunken. There are no company car, club memberships, expensive meals, expense accounts, perks. Keep lying dear teacher. There is no teacher shortage in Ridgewood; I can assure you that you can be replaced on a moments notice.
Perks? I guess if you define 12-14 hour days 12 months a year, putting hours on the weekend, long commutes, conference calls with other parts of the world at 2am, being “penalized for taking sick or personal time, skyhigh contributions to marginal healthcare perks, then I am lucky.
..the REA believes it a political move that they should now pay for their healthcare, and that the “social contract” always was that teachers would be low payed but have job security and free healthcare. I think the reality of what has transpired with our healthcare system has not yet dawned on the REA. Many people can not pay for their own healthcare let alone shoulder the burdens of theirs, increased taxes, etc.
…most people are now taking home less money than they did six years ago. No one is getting more than a 1 – 1.5% increase a year and everyone’s health care premiums are skyrocketing. And in the private sector, a lot of those premiums are paying for high deductible policies (my family policy is costing me $5200/year and only kicks in after the $3000 out of pocket). Again, everyone is bringing home less which means we can’t afford to pay more taxes. Sad, but true.
My employer switched to a high deductible health plan this year. I still pay $1000/ mth in premiums (employee share) plus now I have a $5k deductible.
So, my son sprained his ankle and now I get a $1000 bill from Valley because I haven’t hit my deductible yet. (That’s with the insurer negotiated rates). All doctor visits other than preventive care are out of pocket until the deductible is hit.
Thank you Obama for accelerating this for happening to me because our employer is trying to avoid the Cadillac tax.
Ridgewood NJ, Ridgewood Board of Education rejects state-appointed fact finder’s recommendations for a new teachers’ contract. The BOE’s rejection sends contract negotiations, at an impasse since July 2015, back to Square One.
As we have said for some time the gravely train for public employees has come to an end and proof postive is the BOE’s rejection of the compromise .The public is just not buying paying more for healthcare for teachers than for themselves and teacher union support for “Obamacare” has left many taxpayers to feel if it good enough for us its good enough for you.
However teacher advocates in town say , that the “BOE rejected third party, neutral, unbiased fact finder recommendations and refused to settle. REA was willing to compromise on several major issues and settle the contract. Teachers have been working without a contract for a full year and still performed all of their contractual duties.”
While other readers are glad the BOE is taking a stand , “God forbid you don’t agree with the teachers’ demands. I hope the BOE takes a tough position. Agree that with the schools’ ratings sliding downwards and raises should be performance based. As for the healthcare plans – why would you think you are entitled to a better plan than the taxpayers who pay for yours? The teachers obviously do not care about the children or their profession as much as they care about the almighty dollar. They need to work a little harder and bring the school ratings up before any increases and either contribute more towards their medical insurance or agree to a less expensive plan. Yes, that means $25 co-pays and higher deductibles”
While BOE members have taken the heat say one reader , “The withering and abusive “behind the scenes” attacks on our elected BOE officials should be an embarrassment to all teachers. Why should teachers get better health benefits than the taxpayers who help subsidize them? Surely some of the things these teachers and the REA have pulled are cause for dismissals? Why not bring in some younger teachers who actually want to work with our kids and would be thrilled to teach here?”
While President Obama runs around the world trying to make the Guinness Book of World Records for Presidential firsts, his administration continues to work what sure looks like a checklist of petty personal vindictiveness masked by misguided self –righteousness. Donald Scarinci, PolitickerNJ Read more
Hillary Clinton is facing the problem of higher ObamaCare premium hikes in an election year.
ObamaCare premiums are expected to rise more sharply than they have in previous years, and Republicans are seizing on the issue for electoral advantage.
“Despite premium hikes under ObamaCare, Clinton continues to take credit for the law on the campaign trail,” the Republican National Committee wrote in a recent email, above a compilation of headlines about steep proposed increases.
Ridgewood NJ, More or less all lawyers in New Jersey who are both intelligent and honest will freely admit that, even though the New Jersey Supreme Court has boldly declared and decreed that our state constitution mandates the ready availability of so-called “affordable housing”, the actual text of that document mandates no such thing. In other words, the New Jersey Supreme Court made it all up based on its policy preferences.
For its part, the New Jersey legislature subsequently failed effectively to fight against the Supreme Court’s usurpation of its constitutionally-bestowed power to devise and enact generally-applicable public laws. So why has the unconstitutional Mount Laurel regime survived and become so well-ingrained in New Jersey? Because the vast majority of New Jersey attorneys have regrettably maintained decades of strict radio silence on this issue, thereby allowing the Mount Laurel regime to develop the necessary patina of legitimacy. Some have done this because they fear the professional consequences of vocal dissent. In other words, they are ruled by political correctness. However most do so because they so heartily support the underlying affordable housing POLICY that they are willing to accept however much DAMAGE the Mount Laurel regime will unavoidably wreak on the integrity of our state constitution.
This is such a brutal attack on the New Jersey State Constitution that it arguably amounts to a violation of the United States Constitution. This is because the Mount Laurel regime is both judicially-created, and judicially-enforced, and therefore deprives New Jersey residents of the small “r” republican form of government the U.S. Constitution guarantees to all U.S. citizens. As a rueful result, New Jersey is now poised to be used by political progressives as a constitutional-law-based model for imposing a similar housing policy on the rest of the country, much like Massachusettes’ all-encompassing healthcare regime (i.e., Romneycare) was used by Obama and Ridgewood’s own Jonathan Gruber as a template for foisting the Affordable Care Act (i.e., Obamacare) on every U.S. citizen that currently draws breath.
Reader asks ,please don’t forget the ACA excise taxes from 2020~…. that’s another 40% on platinum level health benefits like those our teachers, police and fire currently enjoy. They either all need to be downgraded to bronze level health benefits or taxpayers will bear the brunt of the 40% tax on $25,000 family plans, i.e. an additional $10,000 a year per Village and BOE employee with a platinum family plan. Who pays for that?
Ridgewood NJ, On December 18, 2015, Congress passed and the President signed a two-year delay of the 40 percent excise tax on high-cost employer-sponsored health plans, also known as the “Cadillac Tax.” This delay was part of a year-end government funding package and changes the effective date from 2018 to 2020. While the tax was originally non-tax deductible, the December 2015 changes make it tax deductible for employers who pay it.
No regulations have been issued to date. In February and July 2015, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) issued notices covering a number of issues concerning the Cadillac Tax, and requested comments on the possible approaches that could ultimately be incorporated into proposed regulations.
What it is/fee duration
Permanent, annual tax beginning in 2020 on high-cost employer-sponsored health coverage.
Purposes
Reduce tax preferred treatment of employer provided health care
Reduce excess health care spending by employees and employers
Help finance the expansion of health coverage under the Affordable Care Act (ACA)
Amount
The tax is 40% of the cost of health coverage that exceeds predetermined threshold amounts.
Cost of coverage includes the total contributions paid by both the employer and employees, but not cost-sharing amounts such as deductibles, coinsurance and copays when care is received.
For planning purposes, the thresholds for high-cost plans are currently $10,200 for individual coverage, and $27,500 for family coverage.
These thresholds will be updated before the tax takes effect in 2020 and indexed for inflation in future years.
The thresholds will also be increased:
If the majority of covered employees are engaged in specified high-risk professions such as law enforcement and construction, and
For group demographics including age and gender.
For pre-65 retirees and individuals in high-risk professions, the threshold amounts are currently $11,850 for individual coverage and $30,950 for family coverage. These amounts will also be indexed before the tax takes effect.
Who calculates and pays
Insured: Employers calculate and insurers pay
Self-funded: Employers calculate and “the person who administers the plan benefits” pays
HSAs and Archer MSAs: Employers calculate and employers pay
How a group health plan’s cost is determined
The tax is based on the total cost of each employee’s coverage above the threshold amount.
The cost includes contributions toward the cost of coverage made by employers and employees.
The statute states that costs of coverage will be calculated under rules similar to the rules for calculating COBRA premium.
How the tax will be paid
Forms and instructions for paying the tax are not yet available.
Tax implications
Based on the December 2015 changes, Cadillac Tax payments will be deductible for federal tax purposes.
Applicable types of coverage
Insured and self-insured group health plans (including behavioral, and prescription drug coverage)
Wellness programs that are group health plans (most wellness programs)
Health Flexible Spending Accounts (FSAs)
Health Savings Accounts (HSAs), employer and employee pre-tax contributions*
Health Reimbursement Accounts (HRAs)*
Archer Medical Savings Accounts (MSAs), all pre-tax contributions*
On-site medical clinics providing more than de minimis care*
Executive Physical Programs*
Pre-tax coverage for a specified disease or illness
Hospital indemnity or other fixed indemnity insurance
Federal/State/Local government-sponsored plans for its employees
Contributors s Note : We predicted it. We know it was all a lie and of course Dr. Gruber boasted and called the American people “Stupid”.
“Obamacare plan customers should brace for sticker shock when the administration posts insurers’ preliminary rate requests for 2017 this week. Health plans are asking for sharp price increases, after suffering big losses on exchanges in the last two years. Regulators caution that these are preliminary requests and final rates could a lot different.
Insurers cite rising drug costs and patients who utilize a lot of medical services for the price-hike requests, which range from 17 percent in New York, and more than 20 percent in Virginia, to 30 percent rate increase requests from Oregon’s largest insurers ” Joe Killian
Bertha Coombs | @BerthaCoombs
Obamacare plan customers should brace for sticker shock when the administration posts insurers’ preliminary rate requests for 2017 this week.
Health plans are asking for sharp price increases, after suffering big losses on exchanges in the last two years. Regulators caution that these are preliminary requests and final rates could a lot different.
Insurers cite rising drug costs and patients who utilize a lot of medical services for the price-hike requests, which range from 17 percent in New York, and more than 20 percent in Virginia, to 30 percent rate increase requests from Oregon’s largest insurers.
$81,000 average salary for Ridgewood teacher. Glen Rock, Fairlawn, Wyckoff are around $72,000 average. A $102,000,000 budget for around 5,500 students is approx $18,000 per student. Ridgewood also ranks high for greater number of teachers making over $100,000. Easy commute, easy district, unlimited fundraising from parents to fund better technology, environment and resources, not to mention intelligent students served by private tutoring, parent involvement and less negative secondary factors. I love and respect our teachers and feel fortunate to have such a wonderful school district for my kids. But, I need either more information or stronger argument from teachers to be convinced they are getting a bad deal in these negotiations. Anyone?
These teachers need to understand the private sector reality – taxpayers cannot be subsidizing better benefits for teachers than they have themselves, it doesn’t work.
Sick and tired of hearing some the highest paid teachers in the State complain. Get a grip – the real world does not get automatic increases every year and in many case each year the contribution towards health insurance increases and coverage changes to economize. Let them strike and fire them. Lots of fresh new faces with lots of energy or teachers working in lower paying districts would love to have your jobs and be happy to work for a lot less
Teachers voted for Obamacare which is why health premiums are rising faster than wages. But now they want taxpayers to carry the extra cost so they can keep their Platinum health benefits? Give us all a break. Its great the REA can’t bully our BOE members as parents like they’ve done in the past with former BOE members. These are hard working volunteers trying to protect Ridgewood taxpayers from hostile and abusive REA/NJEA who has no interest in negotiating in good faith. They just want to keep screwing Ridgewood taxpayers as our school rankings keep declining. $102mn school budget for a town of 25,0000 and yet the REA wants more! This is abject greed.
NJEA and the REA is shameless trying to bully BOE members and their families. We can only guess the abuse the hard working volunteers have faced privately from the REA and NJEA thugs, and if they did have kids in the local schools what challenges that might present. If you don’t like your health benefit premiums, then downgrade to Bronze level coverage like the rest of us in the private sector. Remember, it was your union who supported Obamacare. So now accept that taxpayers are done subsidizing better health benefit plans for you elite teachers at everyone else’s expense. The rate of contribution is determined by your salary, simply the more money you make the more you are forced to contribute. Lower contribution levels don’t work for taxpayers, so suck it up like the rest of us and enjoy your paid summer vacation.
The number of insurance companies offering health coverage via the Affordable Care Act marketplace in New Jersey will dip to four next year when Oxford Health Plans, a subsidiary of UnitedHealthcare, pulls out. Lindy Washburn, The Record Read more
House Republicans won Round 2 in a potentially historic lawsuit Thursday when a federal judge declared the Obama administration was unconstitutionally spending money to subsidize health insurers without obtaining an appropriation from Congress.
Last year, U.S. District Court Judge Rosemary Collyer broke new ground by ruling the GOP-controlled House of Representatives had legal standing to sue the president over how he was enforcing his signature healthcare law.
On Thursday, she ruled the administration is violating a provision of the law by paying promised reimbursements to health insurers who provide coverage at reduced costs to low-income Americans.
The judge’s ruling, while a setback for the administration, was put on hold immediately and stands a good chance of being overturned on appeal.
A mid rising drug and health care costs and roiling market dynamics, the spokesperson for the nation’s health insurers is predicting substantial increases next year in Obamacare premiums and related costs.
Without venturing a specific percentage increase, Marilyn Tavenner, the president and CEO of America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP), said in an interview with Morning Consult that the culmination of market shifts and rising health care costs will force stark increases in health insurance rates in the coming year.
“I’ve been asked, what are the premiums going to look like?” she said. “I don’t know because it also varies by state, market, even within markets. But I think the overall trend is going to be higher than we saw previous years. That’s my big prediction.”
If Tavenner is right, Obamacare will jump dramatically—last year’s premium for the popular silver-level plan surged 11 percent on average. Although Tavenner didn’t mention deductibles, in 2016, some states saw jumps of 76 percent, while the average deductible for a 27-year-old male on a silver plan was 8 percent.
UnitedHealth, the nation’s biggest health insurer, will cut its participation in public health insurance exchanges to only a handful of states next year after expanding to nearly three dozen for this year.
CEO Stephen Hemsley said Tuesday that the company expects losses from its exchange business to total more than $1 billion for this year and last. He added that the company cannot continue to broadly serve the market created by the Affordable Care Act’s coverage expansion due partly to the higher risk that comes with its customers.
The state-based exchanges are a key element behind the Affordable Care Act’s push to expand insurance coverage. But insurers have struggled with higher than expected claims from that business.
UnitedHealth Group Inc. said it now expects to lose $650 million this year on its exchange business, up from its previous projection for $525 million. The insurer lost $475 million in 2015, a spokesman said.
