Statewide School Pool
 
In 2010 through a collaborative process aimed at exploring alternative, cost effective methods of providing coverage, CECHCR introduced a design for a statewide public education risk pool that promises a new direction in health care purchasing for California’s public education community. CECHCR believes that a school pool is a sustainable solution to the health care crisis in education that will lower costs, improve services and streamline collective bargaining while improving labor-management relationships. All CECHCR-member organizations have now signed on to the concept. Key issues to insure the success of the pool are being hammered out, and the drafting of school pool legislation has begun.

Read the CECHCR School Pool Executive Summary
Read the Full CECHCR Report

CECHCHR's School Pool Position Paper was developed in follow-up to legislation and an initial study. AB 256, signed into law by Governor Schwarzenegger in 2005, commissioned an exploratory study of a statewide risk pool for public education.  The feasibility study was then commissioned by CalPERS and conducted by March Mercer Kroll (Mercer).

Read the Mercer Executive Summary
Read the full Mercer report

The Mercer Report found that potential savings of up to $401 million per year would be possible if a statewide pool were to be implemented.  CECHCR has taken the lead in further exploration of the school pool concept. 

While working on the issue of who would administer a statewide public education risk pool and how retirees would be covered, questions arose regarding CalPERS’ PEMHCA retiree benefits. See CECHCR's fact sheet here.