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Garfield students support teachers over controversial health care swap
The districts dropped state-provided health insurance coverage and switched to a private Aetna plan, giving employees less than five days’ notice.
Hundreds of thousands of New Jersey government workers — including teachers and police officers — will likely be facing steep increases in health care premiums in 2026 under recommendations unveiled July 9 by the state Treasury Department.
Local government workers would be hit hardest in 2026, followed by school employees and state government staffers, if the following recommendations by a Treasury consultant are adopted by a commission that oversees the plans:
- Local government plan: 36.5% increase.
- School Employees’ Health Benefits Program: 29.7%.
- State Health Benefits Program: 21%.
Unions representing those workers had been bracing for a large increase, especially after a Treasury report in May warned of rising costs and deficiencies in the state plan.
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State officials continue to “make public employees, especially in local government, collateral damage,” said Billy Gallagher, an official with the Communications Workers of America, which represents 40,000 workers. “If nothing changes, our state and local governments will lose the essential workers who keep our communities running.”
Premiums have been skyrocketing in recent years in New Jersey’s public sector. Over the past five years, they have risen 115% for local government workers, 73.9% for school workers and 67.3% for state workers.
The average family premium has increased 24% since 2019 and 52% since 2014 in the U.S., said a 2024 Kaiser Family Foundation report.
The increases have forced many local governments to leave the state plan. About 45% of the state’s 1,200 eligible local public entities are using other insurance plans.
The recommendations for 2026 were made by the actuary group AON on July 9 to the State Health Benefits Commission and the School Employees’ Health Benefits Commission, which would need to adopt them.
Union members packed a meeting of the commission to protest the move.
Among those criticizing the increase was State Policemen’s Benevolent Association President Peter Andreyev, who blamed the “unholy alliance between the carriers and the hospital networks” for the rise.
“Not only should we be angry, the people of New Jersey should be infuriated,” he said in a statement. “We all deserve better.”
New Jersey Education Association President Sean Spiller said he has tried to work with the commission to find ways to lower rates, to no avail.
“For years we have tried to engage with the state on this critical issue, but easy, obvious solutions like money-saving reverse auction for prescription drugs are continually ignored,” he said.
“Even today, the state refused to commit to that. It’s beyond time for the state to show up and work with us, because lack of affordable health care hurts everyone in New Jersey,” Spiller said.
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