In March, employees at St. Paul Public Schools represented by the St. Paul Federation of Educators and Teamsters Local 320 notified our school district that we were exercising our legal right to change health insurance plans and move into the Public Employees Insurance Program (PEIP) in order to reduce out-of-pocket health care costs and receive access to affordable health insurance.
SPFE was formerly notified in July that HealthPartners was planning to levy a $4 million fee against St. Paul Public Schools for ending its contract one year ahead of schedule. In early August, HealthPartners told us they were unwilling to waive the penalty, and that SPPS would have to pay it in order for their employees to access these healthcare savings immediately.
HealthPartners is a multi-billion dollar non-profit organization. Because of their non-profit status, they pay no taxes in support of our school district. If they did, those taxes would amount to more than $3 million for our schools every year. Now they’re saying they want to charge the district $4 million to protect their bottom line.
We know HealthPartners doesn’t have to take that money from our public schools. Now, we need our community to join us in telling them to waive this unnecessary fee that will harm our students and our schools.
Please sign the petition below and let HealthPartners know they should not be taking $4 million from the students of Saint Paul.
https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/tell-healthpartners-dont-take-4-million-from-our-public-schools/