San Francisco Unified School District spends up to 250% more than the average CA school district on OPEB, which are insurance subsidies for retired employees.
That’s because SFUSD is one of the few districts to subsidize retirees on Medicare.
And because SFUSD doesn’t take advantage of generous federal subsidies available under Obamacare for retirees under age 65.
All that unnecessary spending amounts to $31.9 million per year. Solutions are simple. Retirees 65+ should be satisfied with Medicare and retirees under 65 should access premium support from easy-to-use Covered California, which provides Platinum policies similar in many ways to those provided by SFUSD. There’s no excuse for cutting services for students when SFUSD is spending extravagantly — and unnecessarily — on insurance subsidies.
*OPEB = Other Post-Employment Benefits, which are provided on top of pension benefits.
