Dansville teachers now pay 20% of health premiums after 13 years of paying nothing

Health insurance premiums have risen so quickly that most Dansville Schools’ employees went from paying nothing for 13 years toward their premiums to covering 20% of the cost, according to Superintendent Jennifer Wonnell.

Dansville’s school district in Ingham County was able to keep their employees from having to pay health insurance premiums because it dropped the expensive Michigan Education Special Services Association (MESSA), which is an affiliate of the Michigan Education Association, to a high deductible plan.

But the increasing costs of health insurance have school employees pitching in the past two school years to cover the premiums.

Wonnell said insurance costs began surging in January 2025 and increased faster than the state’s annual cap on what public employers may contribute.

When rates for 2026 were released in September 2025, Dansville officials found that switching to an arrangement under which the district paid 80% and employees paid 20% was less expensive for all but seven employees than remaining under the state’s hard-cap option. Dansville schools listed 128 staff in the 2025-2026 school year, according to Mischooldata.org. 

“So, in just a couple of years’ time, our employees went from not having to contribute out of pocket for healthcare — for our cheapest option — to covering 20% of the cost,” Wonnell told Michigan Capitol Confidential in an Aug. 26 email. “It breaks my heart.”

Wonnell recommended that the school board adopt the 80–20 arrangement for 2026, even though doing so required the district to spend more on employee health insurance. She said the decision applies for one year and that the district has not determined what it will do in 2027.

Wonnell said she had heard that the increase was connected partly to the cost of weight-loss drugs and an increase in medical procedures that patients had postponed during the COVID-19 pandemic. She described those explanations as anecdotal.

Michigan’s 2011 Public Act 152 limits what public employers, including school districts and local governments, may pay toward employee medical plans. Employers generally must choose between a state-set hard cap on their contributions or an arrangement under which they pay no more than 80 percent of total plan costs. The limits took effect in 2012 and are adjusted annually, according to the Michigan Department of Treasury.

The law, enacted while Republican Rick Snyder was governor, has long drawn complaints from teachers unions because it shifted a portion of rising insurance costs to public employees.

Some school districts initially avoided employee premium payments by purchasing plans that cost less than the state cap, including alternatives to coverage administered by the Michigan Education Special Services Association. MESSA, which is affiliated with the Michigan Education Association, administers benefits underwritten by Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan.

Public school employee costs still vary widely by district and plan. A Detroit Public Schools Community District employee, for example, can obtain individual coverage under one HMO option for $27.42 per month, although the district also offers more expensive plans.

For comparison, a private-sector employee earning between $60,000 and $70,000 annually could be estimated to pay about $160 per month, or $1,920 annually, for individual coverage based on March data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Dansville’s experience illustrates how rapidly rising premiums can erase the protection once provided by the state’s hard-cap system. As insurance costs outpace annual increases in the cap, employees must either pay the difference or move to the 80–20 arrangement.