Thank you, taxpayers

The Township Council has seen the light when it comes to health care costs. Unfortunately, the Brick Board of Education and the unions are still groping in the dark.

Teachers and school district employees still pay nothing toward the cost of their health care premiums. That's mind-boggling in dark economic times like this. It's also inexcusable.

Granted, school district officials did manage to wring some concessions out of the unions earlier this year that will eventually translate into big savings.

Any employee who agrees to transition out of traditional health plans, also known as the "Cadillac"' of health care plans, was paid a whopping one-time payment of $4,000 to move into direct-access plans with Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey.

The move from traditional coverage to direct access could save the school district close to a million dollars in health care premium costs by the second year of the contract.

All well and good.

Board of Education President Daniel Woska and school Business Administrator James Edwards also say the district will see big savings from the co-pay changes negotiated in this year's three-year contract.

Employees paid $5 for generic drugs and $10 for brand-name drugs in the previous contract. Now they pay nothing for generic drugs and $15 for brand-name drugs. The idea is to encourage employees to opt for generics and save the district upwards of $250,000 a year, Edwards said.

Employees in direct-access plans pay $5 for doctor visits within the network and 30 percent of the cost for out-of-network physicians.

But this is the real world. Not too many workers in the private sector are lucky enough to have to fork over a paltry five bucks for a doctor visit, or a $15 co-pay for an expensive drug.

Several residents at the Sept. 24 board meeting grilled board members about why district employees don't pay a penny toward the cost of their health care premiums.

Resident Larry Reid noted that the board had just renewed Transportation Director Joseph Sangiovanni's annual contract for $92,500, with a hefty 3.95 percent raise. Sangiovanni, like other district employees, doesn't pay a nickel toward the cost of his premiums.

Taxpayers should be rightly incensed at having to pick up the tab for health care premiums. The concessions the board got from the union were a good start, but not enough in these tough economic times.

Public employees' sense of entitlement to a free ride when it comes to health care is laughable.

Edwards noted that state employees pay nothing for health care premiums. Only one district in Ocean County currently makes employees pony up some money. This is one of the primary reasons New Jersey wears the crown for the highest property taxes in the nation.

Woska said getting district employees to contribute to the cost of premiums is "the next step."

But that step won't come for another three years. Who knows how many residents will have fled Brick and New Jersey by then?