Updated Oct 21, 2023
This post at Brown County Matters.
County Commissioner Meeting Notes – Oct 18, 2023. All three commissioners were present – Sanders, Pittman, Wolpert (1). Local GOP leadership – Robyn Rosenberg Bowman also present. (1) Wolpert received 7 of the 11 votes by GOP precinct chairs to fill the vacancy left by Chuck Braden.
2024 New Health Insurance Plan Introduced and approved. Vote had to be NOW. The employee health insurance benefit represents about 8-10% of the total county budget. Sanders abstained citing the need for more time to understand the plans and costs.
There were several handouts (a good thing) including projections on costs. Little time was spent reviewing the handouts to gain an understanding of all the costs, options, and risks. The commissioner’s assistant said the need was time-sensitive and an immediate vote was needed. Not a best practice. The President of the council attended via Zoom and had no comments.
I reviewed the information presented and developed the attached spreadsheet. Appears the projected total cost to the county per employee is $17K. This does not include fixed costs (I assume this included the administrative-related costs).
Also, the self-insured option at 17K does not include any additional costs as a result of the risk of the county being self-insured. If there is anyone that has serious medical issues, costs to the county can increase.
I have shared the spreadsheet with county officials for their feedback.
The So What? The government’s cost of defined plans available to State employees runs about 20K per employee. It has been stated that the defined benefit plans were twice as expensive to the county – this does not appear to be the case any longer.
See defined benefit plans, Indiana State Personnel Department – Health Plan Rates at: https://www.in.gov/spd/benefits/plan-rates/
2024 Health Insurance Plans and Costs – Employee and Employer – Handouts
March 2020 – Councilman Jim Kemp. The estimated deficit projected for June at -1, 350,145.00. Kemp completed an analysis on the state of the Health Fund. The recent changes to the benefit package prevented the deficit from being even higher. PDF – Kemp health fund deficit
Independent Voters of Brown County IN 