Oregon Educators Benefit Board

The Oregon Educators Benefit Board (OEBB) was created to provide health, dental, vision and other benefits for most of Oregon’s school district employees. The Board was created with the signing of 2007 Senate Bill 426 (SB 426) on March 21. Because of the concern about the state of the health care and the skyrocketing premiums being charged to school districts in Oregon, OEBB was considered an emergency and the Board became affective from the moment the bill was signed. OEBB changes the way K-12 grade school districts, education service districts (ESDs), community colleges and some charter schools provide benefits to employees. School districts and ESDs were purchasing plans for employees independently, through one of two health plan trusts or through the Oregon School Employees Association. Under OEBB’s authority, most of these districts now pool employees together to purchase healthcare and other benefits. OEBB designed, contracted and will manage the benefit plans the Board put in place on October 1, 2008. Currently, about 150,000 people receive their health benefits through OEBB. When all districts have entered the program -- all participating school districts must participate in the pool by October 2010 -- it is expected that OEBB will cover about 170,000 people.