Hill County employees express frustration with health insurance premium increases

Several Hill County employees expressed frustration Thursday morning while meeting with the Hill County commissioners after learning that rates for county employees who have others on their insurance health plan will spike by 11.8 percent starting July.

The commissioners voted 3-0 to adopt Option 9 that would raise that increase.

Effective July 1, county employees who choose to have others on their employee benefits package will be required to pay the increased rate for spouses and dependents. The increase for employees is wholly covered.

MACo Health Care Trust is the insurance provider the county has been with for three years.

Commissioners Mark Peterson, Diane Mclean and Mike Wendland told the group in the meeting that the county's contribution for employee premiums will go from $1,161 monthly to $1,249 monthly.

The percentage of the increased premiums for spouses and dependents the county will cover, they said, amounts to about 64 percent, leaving the employee to cover the remaining 36 percent of the increase. But, they said, that percentage is not exact. Increases will depend on other factors like which of the available plans they choose - "as insurance rates are an interesting puzzle," McLean said.

Employees from the county health department, clerk and recorder's and county attorney's office, among others, attended the public meeting. The commissioners told everyone that they had searched for the best rates and Option 9 was where the search led.

For more than half an hour, employees, for the most part, expressed various degrees of frustration with the hike.

Hill County Public Health Director Kim Larson told the commissioners the hike will nullify the low wages county employees have been told are justified by a good benefits package.

Another at the meeting who did not identify themself echoed Larson's sentiment.

"We all know we all have to pay insurance, but it's a huge jump, and to not have our wages reflect that - that's the hard part," the person said.

Others wanted to know if Option 9 really was the best option and accused the commissioners of not caring about the employees.

"I get saving the taxpayers money, but what about us?" that person said.

Commission chair Peterson objected to the accusation that he did not care.

"When you say I don't care about the employees, I looked at every angle to try and find a way," Peterson said. "I care about the employee but we have to look at both."

Peterson added, "If you see a plan by another company that looks better, let us know so we can talk to that company."

Someone asked if the rate would continue to climb in the coming years. Peterson stood up, grabbed a small glass globe and said, "You tell me what you see."

There is no way to know where insurance rates will go in the future, the commissioners said during and after the meeting.

"Obamacare was supposed to decrease charges, and all that's done is make insurance more money," Peterson said during the meeting, adding that it would be great if the government figured something out.

The commissioners said, after the meeting, that they had no way of knowing if the rate increase will prompt county employees to quit, or make it harder to hire employees. It was entirely possible that may happen, they said.