EAST LANSING, Mich. (Michigan News Source) – Chandra Madafferi, president of the state’s largest teachers union, is upset with a 2011 law that mandated cost sharing with public school employees for health care.

“It’s true that health care costs are rising for everyone,” Madafferi wrote on the Michigan Education Association’s (MEA) website earlier this month. “However, these cost increases are hitting school employees even harder than the average Michigander, due to a 2011 law that places an artificial limit on how much school employers can spend on their employees’ health care premiums. The ‘hard cap’ law has resulted in educators having to pay an ever-increasing share of their health care costs, as the amount districts are allowed to spend hasn’t kept pace with inflation.”

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Before the GOP-controlled state Legislature passed the law in 2011, many school districts paid 100% of the premiums for the health insurance plans of its employees.

At the time the bill was passed in 2011, it was estimated that bill could save taxpayers up to $500 million a year.

The law gave school districts two options. They can pay no more than 80% of the costs of health insurance and pass the remaining 20% off to its employees. Or they can choose a “hard cap” and no longer pay any costs that exceed that hard cap.

It should be noted that the state’s largest school district – Detroit Public Schools Community District – offers a health care plan for an employee that covers that employee’s entire family (spouse and children) for as low as $1,732 a year in premiums. By comparison, the average U.S. worker paid $6,296 in 2024 for a family plan, according to KFF, formerly known as The Kaiser Family Foundation.

The Dansville Schools, for example, has gone the “hard cap” option. And by shopping for lower cost insurance, they have been able to keep the total premiums below the cap. That means Dansville Schools employees have not had to pay any premiums for their health insurance from 2011 through 2024. Dansville Superintendent Jennifer Wonnell said 2025 was the first time since 2011 any school employee with her district has had to share in the cost of health insurance premiums.