MILWAUKEE - Some Wisconsin schools are trying a dissimilar approach to get affordable health care insurance - they're discussing directly with insurance companies.

Several Dane County schools have by now done it, but officials there say they had sole circumstances.

As health care costs have seen double-digit increases in recent years, teachers unions said many districts have established concessions to their health plans. Some have picked up a better share of their premiums or they have augmented co-payments or limited physician choices.

But even those moves haven't been enough, the union-created insurance company that dominates the public school market in Wisconsin.

Robert Butler is a staff lawyer with the Wisconsin Association of School Boards who negotiates for a number of districts in the metropolitan Milwaukee area.