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BETTER FUNDING FOR PUBLIC EDUCATION IN MASSACHUSETTS  
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Doug Selwyn
March 15, 2025
Special to xxxxxx
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_ There is another place we can look for more money, from a most
unlikely source. Single Payer Health Insurance. _

, National Nurses United

 

Anguished cries coming out of school administration offices and school
committee meetings signal the annual return of budget season. School
district decision makers across the state desperately try to create
budgets that serve the needs of all of their children. The money
coming from the state and the drained treasuries of their local towns
is nowhere near enough to cover the actual cost of educating the
children. There is a clear need to re-examine the Chapter 70 funding
formula, and many are urging a re-consideration of how the state
handles charter school and school choice tuition. There is another
place we can look for more money, from a most unlikely source.

SINGLE PAYER HEALTH INSURANCE

Representative Lindsay Sabadosa has filed a bill ( HD 1228, SD 2341)
for the state to move to a single payer, government run insurance plan
that would save school districts and towns millions of dollars while
offering better insurance for everyone. It will also, incidentally,
improve the education of our children. Let me explain.

Roughly seventy-five to eighty percent of a school district’s budget
is salaries and benefits. These costs are negotiated and agreed to by
each district and workforce. Insurance costs run into the millions for
most districts of any size; Greenfield’s is approximately four
million dollars a year, which is proportionately about the same as
what other districts are paying. These insurance policies are with
private insurance companies, and to be clear, private insurance
companies are businesses; exist to make a profit, not to provide
health care. They are obligated by law to put at least eighty to
eighty-five percent of the money they collect toward health care; the
other fifteen to twenty percent goes towards their costs and towards
profits. When we talk of profits we are talking about tens of billions
of dollars every year, that go from our pockets into compensation
packages for their CEOs and to stockholders. That’s money that
school districts pay that does nothing to improve the health or
education of our children or the lives of those who work with them.
For example, United Health Care, one of the leading insurance agency
in terms of profits, rejects one out of every three claims; that’s
how they make their money. The less they pay out, the more money they
make. Many have accused them of practicing medicine without a license,
deciding who should and who should not receive the care their doctors
have prescribed. Single payer is different.

HOW DOES SINGLE PAYER WORK?

Single payer, or government run insurance is not a new idea; more than
thirty-two relatively wealthy countries around the world have some
version of single payer, government run insurance. We as a country
currently pay more than twice as much for our health coverage than do
other countries and the health of our population is rated no better
than thirty-fifth best in the world. The organization Mass Care has
advocated for single payer insurance for more than twenty years,
insisting that we would have better health while paying less, which
would mean more dollars available to schools and towns. So how does
this work and how realistic is it as a possibility?

The Mass Care web site (masscare.org) has a section labeled education;
under that tab click “frequently asked questions” to get an idea
of how the program would work. The state would establish a trust fund
that would fund the state’s insurance program. Corporations and
businesses would contribute a payroll tax of 7.5% (8% if they have
more than one hundred employees); employees would pay a 2.5% payroll
tax into that same fund. Money that comes into the state for Medicare
and Medicaid payments would also go into that fund. And that’s it.
There would be enough money in the trust fund to cover everyone in
Massachusetts for the medical care they need, whether they are working
or not, with no co-pays, and no additional expenses. You get to choose
your own doctors; the government does not tell you who to see.

And where does the money come from to pay for all of this? Estimates
are that overhead for single payer would be approximately two percent,
as compared to the twenty percent currently enjoyed by private
insurance. With single payer, no one makes profit off of our
illnesses; instead of paying for fat compensation packages of CEOs and
padding the bank accounts of stockholders, the money we pay goes
directly to our health care. In addition, the government would have
leverage to negotiate drug prices and the prices charged by hospitals,
which continue to rise astronomically.

We did an estimate of how much four local school districts would save
according to the Mass Care formula and it is eye opening. Greenfield
and Mohawk Trail would each save over 3 million dollars every year;
Athol/Royalston, a smaller district, would save approximately two
million dollars. Pioneer would save just under two million per year.
The addition of a small payroll tax for employees usually generates
some initial resistance but when working through the numbers it is
clear that the payroll tax is significantly less than the cost of
insurance we are now paying, and results in better medical care.

AND SINGLE PAYER IMPROVES EDUCATION

An added bonus is that single payer improves the education our
children receive. Families who currently lack insurance or who are
under-insured will be able to get their children the medical care
their need, when they need it rather than having to wait until things
get bad enough to go to the emergency room. With proper care our
children will be able to come to school ready and able to learn rather
than suffering from medical challenges their families can’t afford
to address. A number of superintendents I spoke with said that
toothaches are one of the most significant reasons why children miss
school, and why they are not paying full attention to their lessons.
Offering families the opportunity to get the care they need, means we
are improving the education that all children are getting.

WHY DON’T WE ALREADY HAVE SINGLE PAYER?

It seems pretty simple; better health care for less and better
education for the kids; why don’t we have single payer already? As
always, it’s complicated. As Representative Sabadosa said, we have a
tendency in this country to turn everything into a business, and we
have done that with our health care, which is about making money above
all else. In addition, insurance companies have very strong lobbyists
who are only too happy to donate the dollars we pay in premiums to
politicians who return the favor by voting against adopting a single
payer model. And, to be fair, it is complicated. There are businesses
of different sizes, public and private, there are federal dollars that
need to be included and accounted for, and there is a fear of the
unknown. What happens if we try this and it doesn’t work; what then?
Single payer advocates point out that our current system doesn’t
work all that well, especially for those who are poor. Health costs
are skyrocketing, four in ten in Massachusetts are struggling to pay
health care costs, even those with insurance, and many simply have
given up going to the doctor. Our version of rationing health care is
economic; many can’t afford the care they need. It’s a challenge,
but single payer is possible: we have the examples of more than thirty
countries throughout the world that have made it work.

It's important to recognize that single payer is popular with the
public. Mass Care has carried out more than twenty non-binding ballot
questions around the state over the past couple of elections and it
has passed in every one, including districts won by Republicans as
well as Democrats. Better health care for less money is not a partisan
issue, and it will lead to better education for all of our students as
well. As we struggle to meet the needs of our children, single payer
health care is an intriguing option that I urge people to research.
You can find information about single payer at [link removed] ;
you can find the text of the bill that Representative Sabadosa has
filed at [link removed],

DOUG SELWYN is a retired K-12 and college teacher who is active in the
Education Task Force of Franklin County Continuing the Political
Revolution

* single-payer health care
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* Medicare for All
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* school funding
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