Columbus teachers to pay 8% more for health insurance

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(The Center Square) – Columbus City Schools, the largest school district in the Ohio, reached an agreement with employee unions over health insurance premium increases.

The school system and the unions have agreed to an 8% premium increase in 2027, according to a statement.

The Columbus school system pays for its health insurance plan through with a fund that consists of district and employee contributions to pay employee medical claims directly.

 That fund showed a $40 million funding shortfall in July.

After the shortfall was discovered, the school district ended its relationship with a private consulting company that manages the fund.

Both the public and private sectors are struggling with higher insurance costs in part because of reduced federal subsidies to the Affordable Care Act, according to the non-profit group, Commonwealth Fund.

“While premiums for individual market coverage typically increase each year, not since the early days of the first Trump administration have costs been poised to rise by as much as they will in 2026,” the group said. “The median proposed premium increase for 2026 is 18% nationally,which is more than twice the increase insurers proposed for 2025 and triple the change for 2024.

Columbus school superintendent Angela Chapman praised the district’s agreement with employee unions.

"I am grateful to our labor leaders and the teams representing our many Columbus City Schools union members for working closely with us to ensure quality health benefits for CCS employees in 2027 and to make sure that we are all paying a fair share for these important benefits," Chapman said.

However, John Coneglio, president of the Columbus Education  Association union, was not as pleased with the agreement.

“The 8% increase in the premiums is along with catastrophic out-of-pocket costs that hurt members who use the plan and hurt members who can’t afford to use the plan,” he told The Center Square.  “It’s designed for people not to use insurance. We’re above $6,000 per person for co-pay.”