The increase of health insurance costs for the 2025-2026 school year will reduce teachers overall salary. Virginia Beach City Public Schools employees and retirees will be affected by this increase on Jan. 1, 2026.
As a result, hospitals and drug companies have increased prices and higher wages for healthcare workers. These factors are contributing to higher costs that are passed on to consumers and employers such as teachers.
“I believe that it will impact the district’s ability to keep highly qualified teachers because of the financial impact of the rising cost,” AVID teacher Yvaal Hampton said. “Other districts may provide more cost effective health plans that will alleviate the added financial burden of the increase.”
Some teachers and staff will pay high premiums for their coverage which is set to be approximately 15%. The factors that induce these effects include medical inflation, technology, new drug prescriptions, chronic conditions and increased utilization.
Some staff believe more could have been done to keep the costs down.
“Re-evaluate other options to keep the cost as is or devise a plan to offset some of the added costs,” Hampton said.
Higher premium costs will rise by 18%, which is double the amount of the rise in health insurance costs back in early 2025. As health costs rise, employment slows, wages lower and federal spending increases.
“Overall, it is lowering teacher’s take-home pay and particularly impacts teachers who have other people on their plans like children or family,” world history and geography teacher Micheal Mosley said. “Ultimately it does not impact my ability to focus because I have no dependents. So while my health care doubled, it was still at a low level to start with.”
The cost in health insurance has even risen past previous recordings from 2020-2022 during the pandemic.
“Primarily, the rise in health care makes Virginia Beach less competitive and will lower benefits compared to surrounding school districts,” Mosley said. “And that will cause issues attracting new teachers.”
