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Logan County Board Discusses
Insurance Plan for County Employees
[March 27, 2025]
On Tuesday, March 25th, the Logan County Board met
for a special regular meeting in the third floor Courtroom of the
Logan County Courthouse. This meeting started at 6:00 p.m. Members
in attendance included Chairman JR Glenn, Michael DeRoss, Keenan
Leesman, Kathy Schmidt, Jim Wessbecher, Lance Conahan, Joseph
Kuhlman, Hannah Fitzpatrick, and Gil Turner. Both Dale Nelson and
Bob Sanders were absent.
The purpose of this meeting was two-fold,
discussing the same topics as the Finance committee meeting that was
held the night before. These topics were renewing the health
insurance plan for county employees and finding funding for the
broadband project.
The meeting was kicked off with a brief prayer by Turner, which was
followed by the Pledge of Allegiance. Glenn then opened the floor to
public comments, of which there were none.
Treasurer Penny Thomas and Finance Committee Chair Schmidt then gave
a brief rundown of what was discussed at the previous night’s
Finance meeting. The primary discussion that was had was keeping the
current Blue Cross Blue Shield (BCBS) insurance plan, which will be
going up by seventeen percent, and increasing the amount the county
contributes each month to help cover part of the cost of that
increase. The committee went back and forth on whether to increase
their contributions either by $100 more per month or $150. Conahan
stated that they were comfortable with $100, but less so with $150
when looking at the budget.
The board then further explained how either the $100 or $150 could
be afforded. For this fiscal year, the board budgeted $850,000 to
cover the cost of insurance. Seeing as how the renewal period is not
lined up with the county’s fiscal year, this can make budgeting for
this expense tricky. Thomas stated that the estimated cost of
insurance after the seventeen percent hike would be $750,000. This
leaves about $100,000 of wiggle room for an increase in county
contribution.
One current unknown is the new union contract. The union will be
negotiating a new contract soon, and there is likely to be an
increase in county contribution to union employee insurance. The
amount of this increase is currently unknown, and the board and
Thomas had a difficult time estimating how much the increase would
be.
Should the board increase their contributions to non-union employees
by $150 per month, that would cost an additional $75,000 for the
year. This would leave $25,000 to cover the increased cost for union
employee insurance. DeRoss asked if it was possible that the
increased union contributions could exceed $25,000. Thomas said this
was definitely a possibility.
Currently, county employees pay about $54 per
month for their $1,500 deductible health insurance plan. If the
county were to increase their monthly contribution by $150, the cost
for the employee would go up to about $77. If the county were to
give $100 more per month, the employees would be paying $127 per
month.
Leesman stated that he had been looking into corporate insurance
plans, and the seventeen percent increase is much better than what
he was finding there. Conahan also suggested increasing the board’s
contributions by $50 per month, leaving $75,000 in reserve for any
union increase.
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Thomas then asked if the other suggested plan was still out of
the question. Glenn informed her that it was not, and the board
then started discussing the other plan. For anyone who is not
aware, the other plan will come with an increase of only about
eight percent, but with some changes compared to the current
plan. The biggest change in the new proposed plan is the
creation of two separate in-network tiers. The first tier would
be for most hospitals, but the second tier would be for
Springfield Clinic. Anyone using Springfield Clinic would have a
higher out-of-pocket maximum and deductible than if they were to
use a hospital in the first tier. This was a plan strongly
disliked by several county employees due to their use of
Springfield Clinic.
The new
proposed plan would cost the county about $709,000 for the year.
This would leave $141,000, rather than the $100,000 if the board
renewed the current plan. Glenn then made the suggestion of going
with this plan, and then giving half of the money they had saved
from the budget to non-union employees to put toward their
insurance.
DeRoss suggested the need to see all of the options together on one
spreadsheet so it is easier to compare amounts. Nathan Whiteman of
American Central Insurance stated that he could put that together
and get it to the board several days before their meeting next
Wednesday, where they will be voting on this issue.
Leesman then made the suggestion of taking some of
the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) money that had been moved to the
jail expansion project and using that to cover insurance. “In the
spirit of quick fixes and moving money around… you could, in theory,
take the money that we just moved, a portion of it, and then put it
into insurance.” He made several comments about moving money around
and disagreeing with that and the board having done that last week.
Leesman’s comment on “quick fixes” was likely a reference to a
comment made by Schmidt last week when the board voted to move the
ARPA funds from the broadband project to the jail expansion. At that
meeting, Schmidt stated that funding the jail with those funds would
be the “quick and easy” way to get it done.
Schmidt then clarified that the board took a vote and decided to
move the funds to the jail expansion. She also stated that putting
the funds into the General Fund, something Leesman had championed at
that meeting, was voted down.
There did not seem to be much support for Leesman’s suggestion of
using the ARPA fund for insurance. Due to a prior commitment Schmidt
had to leave soon after, and was unable to contribute for the rest
of the meeting.
The conversation about insurance did not move much further than
this, and the board decided to move on to the broadband project.
The board is going to meet again next Wednesday, April 2nd, to vote
on what they are going to do about insurance. That meeting will be
held starting at 6:00 pm in the third floor courtroom of the Logan
County Courthouse.
Lincoln Daily News will have coverage of the broadband discussion in
the Friday, March 28th edition.
[Matt Boutcher]
05/25/2025 -
Finance Committee Discusses Future of Insurance for Logan County
Employees
https://archives.lincolndailynews.com/
2025/Mar/25/NEWS/today_COUNTYINS.shtml
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