Health insurance costs for school employees in suburban Allegheny County either decreased or did not change this year, but contract negotiations here and throughout the region hinge on teachers agreeing to pay more toward their coverage.

For the first time since at least 2000, school employees on the HMO plan offered by the Allegheny County School Health Consortium saw their insurance rates drop 2 percent this year and those on the PPO plan had no rate increase, said Jan Klein, chairwoman of the consortium.

Still, "school employees are getting a lot of pressure from school districts to share the costs," said Ms. Klein.

The consortium includes all public schools in Allegheny County except Pittsburgh Public Schools and North Allegheny School District.

Several teachers unions in Western Pennsylvania that have not reached agreements with their school districts are immersed in negotiations over issues involving salary, working conditions and other benefits.

But recently, the top item on the agenda has been health benefits.

"Health insurance has become the most important issue in collective bargaining," said Bruce Campbell, chief negotiator for several school districts, including Pittsburgh Public Schools, Baldwin-Whitehall and Peters Township. "It's important to both employees and employers."

In all the contracts Mr. Campbell has negotiated in the past year, he said, teachers have had to pay more for their health insurance.

"Employers know the average person who has health insurance pays 25 percent of the premium and only 60 percent of people with jobs have health insurance through their employer," he said. "For employees it's important because the cost of health insurance has gone up at such a high rate that they may end up getting no raise or a minimal raise."

Teachers in the Wilkinsburg School District recently signed a new five-year contract just in time for the first day of school. But about two dozen teacher unions in the region are still negotiating and two of them -- Brentwood Borough and Peters Township -- have authorized their negotiators to call a strike if need be. So far, none has gone on strike.

"The real problem is the anger over insurance premiums and co-pays," said Butch Santicola, director of organizing for the Pennsylvania State Education Association statewide.

"That anger is misdirected. It should be directed toward insurance companies. Instead, it's being directed toward employees and employers, and the insurance companies are reaping profits while we fight."

Many school districts are trying to offset the cost of health care to avoid raising taxes.

Even though insurance rates for school employees in Allegheny County did not increase this year, it's more than likely rates will move upward at some point during the five-year life of a new contract.

"Who's to say we won't see the rates do a double-digit increase next year?" said Eric Woods, president of the teachers union in West Mifflin School District. "Both sides have to consider the future trend in insurance rates and reach a compromise.

"The insurance issue is definitely a big one. It was the biggest issue when our negotiations were going on two years ago. We ended up with monthly co-pays for health premiums where previously there were none."

Under their new contract, teachers in Wilkinsburg School District will pay nothing toward health insurance this school year. But starting in the 2007-08 school year, teachers will pay $10 a month for individual coverage and $20 a month for family coverage.

Teachers' salaries in Wilkinsburg will increase 4 percent this year and every year of the five-year contract.

"It's not the best contract. But it's the best contract we could get considering that Wilkinsburg School District has many financial hurdles to overcome," said Michael Evans, president of Wilkinsburg Education Association.

"Negotiations are always tough. Nobody ever comes out of bargaining getting everything they need ... But having these negotiations out of the way helps us focus more on student achievement here in Wilkinsburg."

According to the most recent information available from the PSEA and Pennsylvania Federation of Teachers and some of the districts, teachers unions still negotiating are:

Allegheny County: Baldwin-Whitehall, Brentwood, Cornell, Duquesne and Pine-Richland.

Beaver County: Ambridge Area and Hopewell Area.

Butler County: Mars Area, Seneca Valley and Slippery Rock Area.

Greene County: Southeastern Greene.

Washington County: Bethlehem-Center, California Area, Charleroi Area, McGuffey and Peters Township.

Westmoreland County: Derry Area, Hempfield and New Kensington-Arnold.