Dartblog

At the third budget meeting on January 15, Steven Kadish, President Kim’s right-hand man, commented that the College’s benefits plans would be subject to a thorough review, and he noted that some employees pay only 4% of the total cost of their health care plan.

A suggestion from a Dartblog reader led me to the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation website, StateHealthFacts.org, where comparative figures are available. Below are cost and employee financial participation figures for family health insurance in New Hampshire, Vermont and Massachusetts , and each state is compared to the overall national average:

As you can see, employee contributions for each state and nationally are quite similar, as is the overall cost of health insurance for a family (though total costs for New England are higher than the national average — do we slip and fall a lot on ice?):

If the College were to align employee contributions to the national average, Dartmouth would gain in two ways; first, an enormous amount of money would be added to the budget; and secondly, it would be in our employees’ self-interest to trim their health plans to match their real needs. After all, nobody wants to pay for benefits that they do not believe they will need or use one day.

Note: For the 10% or so if its employees who compete in the national job market, the College could re-jigger compensation accordingly at a modest cost.