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YORK There was a clear disagreement this week between thecounty s board of commissioners and elected officials over whethercounty employees should have to contribute to the cost of theirhealth insurance. Right now, county employees who have single-person policies do notpay in at all the county covers 100 percent of those premiums. If a county employee has coverage with a spouse or a single child,the county pays 60 percent of the premium. For family coverage, the county pays 56 percent of the premium. The county also pays down deductibles for employees. A few yearsago, the county board raised the deductible to $1,500 but agreedto pay it down to $750 for each policy so inherently the employeeswere not affected by the change. We ve been talking about this for awhile now, saidCommissioner Chairman Kurt Bulgrin. So the board, while we re working on the budget, thought now itwould be appropriate to ask employees (with single policies) tostart contributing to their health insurance. We thought $20 a month, $10 a pay period, would be a good startingpoint. But a number of elected officials did not agree. Why are you doing this to our employees? asked Sheriff DaleRadcliff. I m going to stand up for my employees. We have good employeesand if you don t think we have good employees, maybe you shouldget rid of them all. We asked a number of counties how they handle their healthinsurance and 54 counties responded. Only eight make their employees pay anything in. By having them payin, I think it is wrong. This is ridiculous. I think it is wrong to have them pay why all of a sudden thechange? And would it pertain to just the employees or officials aswell? The county board members said it would affect anyone utilizing thecounty s health insurance plan elected officials included. We are not thinking less of them, said Commissioner PatBredenkamp. We do have great employees. But we checked with a number of largeemployers (in the private sector) in York County and theiremployees all pay in toward their insurance. Did the insurance costs go up this year? asked Treasurer BrendaScavo. The commissioners noted that the cost of insurance premiums had notgone up for the new fiscal year. Then how much will we be allowed to increase our budgets? askedAssessor Ann Charlton. So you re looking for increases in wages to compensate forthat? asked Bulgrin. If you take the $20 a month from them and they get no raise,you re cutting their pay, Charlton said. Well, no, they d be paying in for their benefits, Bulgrinsaid. Their salaries wouldn t really be cut. Clerk Cynthia Heine noted that of the counties that responded totheir question, a great majority cover 100 percent of theiremployees insurance. For this to be all of a sudden, Charlton said further. Whatexpense came up that you consider us short (of funds)? There wasn t one specific expenses that came up, Bulgrinanswered. In the private sector, you just don t find full healthcare benefits like county government does. Heine said she wanted the county to check with public powerdistricts to see how they handle insurance for their employees, butdidn t elaborate on the correlation between the two types ofentities. This is not that we don t appreciate the county s employees, Bulgrin said. We just think it s time to start having the employees contributesomething toward their health insurance, to start moving in thatdirection. Is there any good time to do that? It s already so hard for us to get raises for our employees, Charlton said. I know with $20 a month, they ll say that s not a lot. Andit s not that much when you think of the coverage we sort of have.But the idea is now we have to start contributing to our insurance.Budgets are tough, I know, but they are at home too. So $20 a month some will have to rebudget (their personal finances). I would also like us to check with the City of York, Heinesaid. (The sheriff) could lose employees to the city. Bulgrin immediately called Perennial Public Power and Bredenkampcalled the city offices, per Heine s request. Bredenkamp reported back that the city of York pays for singlecoverage and Bulgrin reported that Perennial pays full cost forsingle coverage with employees having to pay 10 percent for familycoverage. Employees need to have notice (of any changes) and they need theopportunity to opt out, said York County Attorney Candace Dick. There has to be some notice ahead of time. The issue of timing, however, briefly changed the direction of theconversation. The clerk s staff said the open enrollment/opt-outperiod had just ended for the year. So maybe we need to delay these changes until next year, Bulgrin said. It s not sounding like it ll work this year. Then he turned to the elected officials and asked, so theconsensus is that you d not rather have employees contribute atall? I think you need to do some more looking into the matter, Charlton said. My employees are afraid of a slippery slope, Dick said, whereit s $20 a month now, then $30, then $40 and eventually they llbe paying their own premiums." "They were hired with the benefits plan in place and maybe took alower paying job with the county because of the benefits. And theywill need to know where the $20 figure came from, the reason forthe change. We thought we were being nice by weaning them in, doing itgradually, said Commissioner Paul Buller. You want me to do valuations that way, raising them inincrements? asked Charlton. A $50 increase this year, $100 the next, $150 the next? Thatwould be against the law. I can t do that. You ask them to pay inso much don t be saying $10, $20, $30 that would not be fairat all. And how will this help the county s budget? As far as the overall budget, it won t affect it one iota, said Commissioner Bill Bamesberger. Then why are we doing this? Sheriff Radcliff asked. My thinking was to work our way up to a certain percentage ofcontribution, to do it gradually, so the employees could budget forit instead of taking it out all at once, Bulgrin said. We need to stay level with the city or we ll lose employees, Heine said. You can t take things away from employees without notice andthem having an opportunity to be heard, Dick said. They need to be notified of any changes and their options andthey need a chance to voice their opinions. Based on what I ve heard (regarding the opt-in-and-out period),I don t think we can do anything right now anyway, Bulgrin said. I think that right now, they re leery, Dick said. If it s this much now, what will it be in the future? And my first thought was what s $20 (to the county) when you re(the county) paying $600-some a month? asked Charlton. How would the county benefit? We can table this matter and find out what other governmentsubdivisions do, Bulgrin said and the conversation ended. It s expected that this matter will be revisited in the future. The e-commerce company in China offers quality products such as Cummins Engine Piston , China Cummins Holset Turbocharger, and more. For more , please visit Cummins Holset Turbocharger today!
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