County will cover most of health insurance premium increase for employees

By Bob Steenson, bsteenson@charlescitypress.com

Some Floyd County public employees will see health insurance premium increases beginning next year, but they won’t feel the full brunt of the rate hike.

The county Board of Supervisors decided Tuesday morning to cover most of the cost of the 2018 health and dental insurance premium increase for county employees by spending about $242,000 from the health budget balance.

That will drop the fund balance from an estimated $595,000 at the end of this calendar year to about $353,000 on Dec. 31, 2018.

County employee health premiums through Wellmark are going up 28.5 percent beginning January 1, primarily because of several very large health insurance claims filed by employees or covered family members this past year.

County Auditor Gloria Carr presented a range of options for the supervisors to consider, along with the impact of each option on the health budget balance.

“It’s all a guessing game,” Carr said, referring to what rates or claims will be in the future.

Supervisor Chairman Doug Kamm suggested passing along about a 15 percent premium increase to employees, but supervisors Mark Kuhn and Linda Tjaden favored about a 6.2 percent increase, and that is what all three supervisors agreed on.

The actual cost to the county of a single health coverage plan including dental and other expenses for a county employee, will increase from $563 per month this year to $729 per month next year.

Family health insurance, dental and other costs will increase from $1,494 per month this year to $1,793 next year.

About half of the 103 current county employees pay nothing toward their monthly health care premiums.

Non-union employees who get single coverage have their entire premium paid for by the county. That won’t change next year.

Non-union employees who get family coverage pay 25 percent of the family premium cost. For those employees, if they had to pay their share of the entire premium increase it would cost them an extra $75 a month next year.

But because the county is subsidizing much of the premium increase cost by spending down its health fund balance, the employees’ actual increase will be an additional $23 a month.

Unionized employees of the secondary roads department pay 20 percent of the premium cost, whether for single or family coverage.

For those employees, their share of the premium increase for single coverage could have been an extra $33 a month, but the supervisors’ action Tuesday will set their share of the monthly premium at about an additional $7 per month.

Unionized employees on a family plan could have seen their monthly premium cost increase about $60 a month. Instead, because the county will subsidize part of the increase, their cost next year will increase about $18 per month.

The county’s health insurance plan is for a $2,000 single, $4,000 family deductible, with a maximum yearly out-of-pocket expense of $4,000 for single coverage and $8,000 for family coverage.

However, the county buys down that deductible through its self-insurance program so that employees pay a $500 single, $1,000 family deductible, with a maximum annual out-of-pocket cost of $1,500 and $3,000.

Also at their regular meeting Tuesday morning, supervisors:

• Received the weed commissioner’s annual report. Commissioner Adam Sears reported that of 26 noxious weeds listed, all but one has been found in Floyd County. Palmer amaranth was listed as “not known” in Floyd County.

Of the 25 weeds that have been found in the county, four were listed as a problem — buckthorn, Canada thistle, purple loosestrife and poison hemlock.

• Appointed Cheryl Erb to a position on the county compensation board, to fill the seat being vacated by Virginia Ruzicka; and appointed Ben Rottinghaus to fill the seat on the zoning commission that was held by Robert Keyes, who died in September.