Supervisors approve insurance premium increase for county employees

After hearing from Denise Ballard and Cindy Allen of the Iowa Governmental Health Care Plan (IGHCP) for approximately a half hour, the Grundy County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously accept the rate of increase for insurance premiums for county employees by 5.5 percent for the upcoming fiscal year.
           
The new total costs of insurance will $634.96 per month for a single employee and $1,583.90 for a family (the current rates are $605.13 and $1,500.58, respectively). The numbers do not factor in the amount that employees contribute to their plans, and other benefits will remain unchanged. According to Ballard, the county will be able to put $78,390 into its partial self-fund.
 
In 2016, the loss ratio for Grundy County was 104 percent, meaning that Wellmark, the insurer, paid out four percent more in claims and benefits than it received in payments. Ballard went on to note that with the current uncertainty surrounding the ACA and its potential repeal, the future of health insurance around the country is murky at the moment.
 
“I do think there will be some radical changes. I don’t know that it’s as easy as some people thought to unravel (the ACA),” she said. 
 
Read more in this week's Grundy Register.