She does have a choice as to who she picks as a primary care physician, does she not? I mean, is there only one primary? Will they allow her to change her primary to one that has better office hours?


Our school district offered us a choice (after BC/BS split) of keeping our traditional coverage (with deductibles) or a PPO. Every family is different, and certain coverages work better for certain people. I chose the PPO. I get the doc for $10, and the ER for $35. When I started at BASD, my copay per paycheck was $9.00 (a steal). Since then it has gone up to $20 (this is after 11 years). Up until this school year, it didn't matter if you were one person, or a family of 8, you got the healthcare for the same copay deduction from your paycheck. You'd be amazed at the amount of teachers who complained about having the copay per paycheck go up. I was part of the bargaining committee, and I wanted to tell them to go look at private companies and see how much those people pay for their insurance. (You can't please everyone, and some of the teachers I work with are the whiniest people I've ever met...)

Our medical insurance is bargained for, and everyone of our teachers is covered by the insurance, whether you have coverage through your spouse or not. Some people get ticked off by that, although it's a fairly small group that has that issue, but they still are not given the choice as to whether they want the insurance or not (this copay that is deducted from our paycheck includes prescription coverage.. $10 per Rx for up to 90 days a Rx, and also dental coverage). So, yes, we do have good coverage, and at a very reasonable cost to the employees.