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Finance Committee Discusses Future
of Insurance for Logan County Employees
[March 24, 2025]
On Monday, March 24th, the Finance committee of the
larger Logan County Board met for a special meeting. This meeting
was held beginning at 7:00 p.m. in the Blue Room of the Logan County
Safety Complex. All four committee members were present, which
included Chairman Kathy Schmidt, Vice Chairman Joseph Kuhlman, Lance
Conahan, and Keenan Leesman. Leesman came in at about 7:50. Other
board members present were Dale Nelson, Gil Turner, and Michael
DeRoss. Also present were Penny Thomas (Treasurer), Theresa Moore
(County Clerk and Recorder), and Kelly Elias (Circuit Clerk). There
were also several employees from Elias’s office.
One of the two topics that were discussed at this
meeting was insurance for county employees. This issue had been
discussed at the regular board meeting last week, but it was decided
this meeting needed to be had so everyone’s voice could be heard on
the matter. The other topic of this committee meeting, that being
funding for the broadband project, was discussed after insurance.
For a breakdown of what went on with that half of the meeting, see
LDN’s other article on this meeting.
Schmidt kicked off the meeting by informing everyone that this was
“a meeting for discussion.” The board has a small amount of time
left before a vote must be had, as they are going to vote on
renewing insurance on April 2nd.
At last week’s regular board meeting, Nathan Whiteman from American
Central Insurance (ACI), the insurance brokerage company that Logan
County uses to help find insurance for its employees, was present to
explain the two options the board has. Essentially, the only two
plans the board has to choose from both come from Blue Cross Blue
Shield (BCBS). The first option is keeping the plan the employees
have now. This choice would result in a seventeen percent increase
in cost of coverage. The other option would be a three-tier system
in which most hospitals are in-network, but Springfield Clinic would
be in an in-network category of its own, tier-two. This second tier
would have a higher cost for employees using Springfield Clinic than
if they went to a different in network hospital that falls into what
is known as tier-one. This second plan would only result in an eight
percent increase in coverage.
Discussion over money, specifically dollar amounts of
how much each of the two plans is going to cost, were had very early
on. On the current plan, employees can choose from three
increasingly expensive insurance plans. The first is a health
savings account (HSA). The second is a plan with a deductible of
$3,500. The last is a plan with a deductible of $1,500. Employees on
the HSA would go from contributing $0 per month to $65.97. Employees
on the $3,500 deductible plan would have to pay $183.47 per month,
an increase of $171.85. The employees on the $1,500 deductible plan
would pay $227 per month, an increase of $172. The total cost of
staying on the old plan would be $752,000 for the year. On the
proposed three-tier plan, that amount would be about $710,000.
Thomas stated that she wanted to ask the board to increase their
current insurance contributions to help cover the cost of this
increase. She also revealed that the county has over $100,000 in
money to be put toward insurance. Elias also voiced some concern
that employees might walk out. She stated that the employees are
expected to contribute too much. Nelson responded that this is why
the board decided to increase their contribution to the cost of
employee insurance last year. Elias shot back that that lasted for
about four months, and now the cost is going to go right back up.
Nelson understood, stating that the board was always planning on
re-evaluating their contributions depending on what the increase was
going to be.
Elias then requested that the board cover the insurance completely.
She stated that the new three-tier plan puts most of the hospitals
on the north end of the county into tier-one. Elias and others live
on the south side of the county, and their main option is
Springfield Clinic, which, as stated previously, would require much
higher contributions from employees before BCBS paid for their care.
Elias then read an email from Dan Benedict, head of the Veterans
Assistance Commission in the county. Benedict suggested maybe
joining up with a larger union in a neighboring county. One of the
reasons that the county employee’s insurance keeps going up so much
each year is because they do not have as many people on it as larger
counties do. If paired with a larger county, this could help reduce
the cost for the individual employees.
Whiteman then spoke on the issue, talking about being self-insured
versus fully-insured. Right now, the county is fully insured. This
means that, if BCBS has to pay more for medical bills than they
receive in contributions from the county and its employees, they
take a loss. This has been the case of the last several years, with
several individuals on the plan having high, frequent medical costs.
This is also the other part of what has been leading BCBS to raise
their rates from year-to-year.
Self-insurance would be if the county wrote its own health insurance
plan. While Whiteman liked this idea, he stated that Logan County
does not have a big enough “pool” to make this work well. He also
stated that, if self-insurance fails, that can be really bad for the
county. Whiteman also stated that if trying to join with another
“pool,” like another county, it is actually best to do that in a
year when you have a low renewal rate. A higher renewal rate tells
the other pool that your pool has high claimants, and that can
actually drive the cost of insurance up for everyone in the pool
rather than lowering it.
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Conahan then asked if the county
could sign a shortened renewal of six months, giving them time
to form an insurance committee and start making a plan of what
to do next with insurance. Whiteman stated that BCBS did agree
to let the county change their renewal date from April to
December, meaning that whatever plan the county goes with, the
plan will be up for renewal again before the end of the year.
This puts insurance renewal on the same timeline as the county’s
fiscal budget, making budgeting for insurance significantly
easier.
There was then a question of why ACI did not look into any
companies other than BCBS. Whiteman stated that they did. Health
Alliance is the other company they usually go with, but they are
closing down at the end of the year. Other companies that ACI
looked into to keep county employees fully insured were United
Healthcare, Cigna, and Aetna. He stated that United Healthcare
declined to give ACI a quote for the county this year, as did
Cigna and Aetna. This really leaves BCBS as the only viable
option for full coverage insurance.
Conahan spoke up again, voicing some grievances with
ACI. He told Whiteman that ACI does not seem to be working. Conahan
stated that he spoke with department heads and the primary concern
with each of them is insurance. He also stated that he has heard
people were having trouble getting a hold of anyone from ACI to ask
questions. He further went on to say that ACI was not communicating
with the Finance Committee ahead of time on issues of insurance.
Conahan used an example, saying that if Whiteman was his personal
insurance broker, and the options for insurance he had were bad, he
would be shopping for a new broker. This is what, according to
Conahan, the Finance committee owes to the taxpayers of the county.
Whiteman stated that he often feels that the insurance agents get
blamed for insurance companies not offering quotes that people like.
He stated that almost every county employee has his number, but that
he is not often contracted with questions. He also stated that board
Chairman JR Glenn asked for information on insurance renewal earlier
this year. He was under the impression that he had given the
information to the correct party, and was not aware that the
information never made it to the Finance committee.
Elias then spoke up again, stating that she did not feel that ACI
was presenting all the options to the board, citing the discussion
from earlier about joining another pool. Whiteman stated that ACI
brings that option to the board every year. The issue with it is, by
the time the county votes on a plan, there is not enough time to
vote on joining another pool. A plan like that would need to be
worked out for months in advance, but BCBS only gives their renewal
proposal a couple of months in advance. Whiteman stated that voting
on joining another pool without all of the information would be
“irresponsible.” He stated that if the county were going to go
forward with a plan like that, they would need to start working on
it at least six months ahead of renewal.
Nelson then stated that he was also frustrated that ACI was not
presenting all of the options, and only selecting the ones they
thought were the best. While there were other companies that offered
insurance to the county, the rate increases compared to the current
plan were all significantly higher than BCBS’s seventeen percent.
Nelson’s argument was that even plans such as these should be
presented to the board, and they would be the ones to determine if
the plans were bad or too expensive. “That is what we are paying you
to do,” Nelson told Whiteman.
The conversation moved on to the board increasing the
amount they pay for employee insurance and staying on the same plan.
It was stated that, if the board pays an extra $150 per employee per
month, bringing the total up to $900 from $750, this would cost the
county roughly $75,000 of the aforementioned $100,000. Elias tried
again to get the county to pay for the total insurance. Numbers were
then run to see what it would cost to keep employee contributions
the same, meaning the board would pick up the full cost of the
increase, but not the full cost of insurance. The exact amount this
would cost would be $72,432.
Discussion was had between the time those numbers were being run.
Leesman asked Whiteman what it would take to join a pool. Whiteman
stated that they would need to get educated on things and learn
where the risks in that plan lie. They would also need to put some
quotes together, but reiterated that they would need at least six
months to get that together.
It was eventually decided to table the insurance discussion for the
special full board meeting tomorrow night. This meeting will be held
in the third floor Courtroom of the Logan County Courthouse starting
at 6:00 pm.
[Matt Boutcher]
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