No increase in county workers' health insurance contribution – El Dorado News-Times

County workers won’t see an increase in the cost of their health insurance this year, despite national trends of rising costs.

District 6 Justice of the Peace Cecil Polk announced in February that county employees’ insurance had been renewed, with only a 3% increase in the cost to the county as the workers’ employer.

“We came in with a projection of 8% but we got 3% instead,” he said during the February meeting of the Union County Quorum Court. “It came out outstanding considering the national level of health insurance. And we didn’t go up on any of our employees’ health insurance; benefits didn’t change.”

Polk explained in a follow-up interview that nationally, the cost of health insurance increased this year by anywhere from 12 to 16%.

“Our claims were so good from our employees and their families that the (insurance) company felt like that… we had a real good group,” Polk said. “As you can tell, we got a really good renewal.”

Last year, the county’s renewal rate was 8-9%, Polk said. However, initiatives implemented to explain to county employees the benefits offered through their health insurance helped to lower claims this year.

“We have a lot of stuff about cessation things, where they talk to people about smoking, and we talk to people about getting preventative care, which saves us a lot of money… If you go get checked out and you’re not out of your pocket a dime to get a wellness checkup, that’s a pretty good benefit,” Polk said. “We’ve trained people to take advantage of the health plan and use it for preventative things.”

“We’ve got one of the richest health plans around,” he added. “It’s fantastic, great benefits.”

The Quorum Court’s Public Service Committee, which Polk, who has been an insurance agent for 47 years, chairs, negotiated the renewal in mid-February, Polk said. Cigna, the county’s health insurance provider, initially projected that the county’s cost would increase by 8%. The renewal is effective April 1.

“We only got a 3% increase overall, so we were very pleased,” Polk reiterated. “Everything stayed the same — all benefits remained the same; no change in benefits, no change in employee contributions. No increase.”

Other members of the Public Service Committee include District 7 JP John Burson, District 5 JP Carolyn Jones and District 3 JP Greg Harrison. Polk also sits on the county’s finance committee.

“We’re just very proud of our employees and that the county did not have to go up on the employees or their families’ cost because the claims were so good,” Polk said. “We’ve got a good bunch of employees… and we had a really good year.”