Good Health Care Makes Stronger Public Schools

Vermont School Boards Association (VSBA) Board of Directors

Please take a moment to sign this statement of our bargaining team's guiding principles (listed below) as they enter negotiations.

Negotiations over the next statewide health care agreement for Vermont public school employees start April 1, 2021. This latest round of health care bargaining will begin during a year when Vermont's public school employees have gone above an beyond, sometimes risking their health and safety to serve their students and the community.

At this moment when the Covid-19 pandemic has demonstrated the critical importance of affordable and accessible health care, and the human cost of health inequities, the employer commissioners representing the Vermont School Board's Association (VSBA) must be ready to work with the union bargaining team in good faith to reduce barriers to health care access for Vermont's dedicated public servants.

Your signature indicates your support for our team's health care goals and demonstrates to the VSBA that we are united in achieving affordable, accessible and high-quality health care for all.

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To: Vermont School Boards Association (VSBA) Board of Directors
From: [Your Name]

As public servants, Vermont’s educators and support professionals are committed to the well-being of others. We lift up the mission of public education so that all students can realize the full potential of their lives and contribute to the well-being of their families and communities.

We believe it is possible to create a fair and just society where all people are treated with dignity and shielded from harm. Among other things, this requires that health care be universally accessible, affordable, and equitable. Health care must be recognized as a human right.

We endorse, therefore, the following principles:

1. The lives of low-income and high-income workers and their families are equally valuable and must be equally protected from illness and injury.

2. Everyone should have access to safe and timely health care services when they need them, with the guidance of medical providers they know and trust.

3. No one should be denied health care or be forced to self-ration care because of cost.

4. Cost-sharing in private benefit plans should be structured to encourage patients to seek high-value, cost-effective care – like primary and preventive care, clinically recommended treatments for chronic conditions, telemedicine services, mental health care, and life-saving medications. Imposing high deductibles on virtually every pill and procedure often blocks or delays access to the kinds of medical care that are most important to protecting and sustaining our lives.

5. Private benefit plans should be easy to navigate and simple to administer. Benefit plan education must be provided to workers and their families to ensure they can access medical treatment in an efficient and dignified fashion.

As we enter statewide negotiations over health care benefits for school employees and their dependents, we will seek outcomes that reflect these principles – for ourselves and all Vermonters.