Lafayette schools' health insurance: cut or raise $1.6 million

LAFAYETTE, La. Rising health care costs across the country are causing problems in the Lafayette Parish school system.



Officials with Lafayette Parish schools say the system's self insurance fund faces a deficit of more than one-point-five (M) million dollars.



The board's insurance committee and employee insurance advisory committee will meet in January to discuss the matter. The insurance committee is expected to recommend a premium increase by April for the following school year.



Nearly 47-hundred people are enrolled in the group insurance plan, which provides medical, prescription and other benefits.



School Board member David Thibodaux has urged the insurance committee to find an alternative to raising premiums.



But board member Judy Cox says the district has "Cadillac" insurance and has to change.



Currently, the Lafayette school district pays about two-thirds of the overall cost of the plan.