$317,191 per year. He noted ….

$317,191 per year. He noted other plan changes could also be implemented to raise deductibles and other out of pocket costs to bring the rate down to about 10.1% increase. All of these were well above the 8% projected increase county finance director Larry Brandl had worked into the proposed budget.

At the same time, Deaton solicited proposal options from Security Health Plan which proposed three options, a Premier POS plan with an 8.31% increase over current rates, a Premier HMO plan with a 5.52% increase over current and a HMO SimplyOne plan that would result in a 10.63% reduction in premium for the county working out to be a $240,772 decrease in total premiums. Under the premier plans, the employees enrolled in the plan would have access to providers in Marshfield Clinic, Aspirus, Mayo, ThedaCare, UW Health and a half dozen other healthcare networks. The SimplyOne plan limits those enrolled in the plan to only go through Marshfield Clinic providers.

Other than an increase in overall out of pocket expense from $9,000 per family plan to $13,000 under the Security Health options and the addition of a Tier 4 with a corresponding 25% prescription drug copay for those high-end medications, the plans are overall similar outside of the provider lists.

Committee member Scott Mildbrand gave the example of a cancer medication that cost $250,000. Under Security Health an employee would pay $13,000 of that cost while under the WCA plan they would pay $9,000 of that cost.

Mildbrand proposed the county switch to the Marshfield Clinic-only plan for all employees and give the option for employees to buy up to the premier plan by paying the difference in premiums out of pocket.

Finance Director Larry Brandl estimated about half of county employees currently go through Marshfield Clinic providers. He said the others would have to switch providers or could end up paying more to keep their current providers.

County employees currently pay 15% of the overall premiums.

Under the SimplyOne plan, the employee portion of the premiums would be $96.59 per month for single plans, $205.53 for single plus one plans, and $239.41 per month for family plans. This is under what is currently being paid and would result in a reduction in premium expense for employees choosing this option.

However, those wishing to buy up to the premier plan to have additional providers would see their monthly costs increase significantly. The single plan would be $233.03 per month, the single plus one would be $495.86 per month and the family plan would be $577.61 per month because it would be 15% of the SimplyOne plan plus the entire amount of the difference in the monthly premium to go to the premier plan.

By comparison the employee portions of the current premium are $108.07 for single plan, $229.97 for single plus one, and $267.88 for family plan.

The major drawing point that makes switching to the SimplyOne plan attractive to county board members is that it would result in an approximately $558,000 change in the overall premium cost.

The proposal to go with the narrow plan and a potential to buy up, drew a lengthy discussion. Committee member Lester Lewis said he would not support a plan that did not give an option for out of network coverage saying they can’t take it out on the employees to reduce the budget.

“I don’t like the term, ‘Take it out on employees,’” Mildbrand said. “I don’t think that is the right term.”

He said for the people who wanted to keep more money in their pocket they could do so or could pay more to have a wider choice. Committee chairman Chuck Zenner noted that it would steer people toward the Marshfield providers.

Committee member Jim Gebauer questioned how hard it would be to get back into the WCA Trust in the future if the county left it now.

Deaton said the county, with its $2.2 million in insurance premiums, is a large enough group that he did not foresee it being impossible to get back into the trust in the future. He noted the county is comparable in size to the village of Menomonee Falls and that the Group Health Trust was aggressive in trying to get them back this year. He said he doubted the county would be able to join it next year and that going forward it would depend on what the experience level looks like and the rating structure.

Mildbrand noted that if the county stayed with the WCA Trust and had a large increase, than he would see them having to raise employee contributions from 15% to 20%.

“We keep talking about recruitment and retention,” Lewis said, noting that they are scheduled to also look at potential wage increases. He said any wage increase is unlikely to come near touching the insurance increases. “We need to make a decision, are we really going to be concerned about retention and recruitment?”

Committee members briefly stepped back from the proposal to go with the SimplyOne and buy up option in order to review the potential to make plan changes and reduce renewal costs by staying with WCA Trust. The plan design changes have the potential to bring the renewal rate to a 10.1% increase.

“It seems to me we are trying to talk ourselves into staying with WCA,” Mildbrand said. He said there would be many employees who would sign up for the cheaper insurance because it still covers Tier 3 drugs and everything, but would be way less expensive. “Maybe 50% of the people would say ‘That’s great,’” he said.

In the end, on a roll call vote, Zenner, Mildbrand, Thums and Ray Soper voted to go with the SimplyOne and buy up option while Lewis, Gebauer and Cathy Lemke were opposed.

Employee wage increase

Committee members moved on to the potential for wage increases. Brandl estimated that each percent of wage increase figured out to about $80,000 of budget impact average across all the county employees.

Zenner proposed a 5% increase, noting that previously the committee had talked about 3% but noted with the insurance changes they could potentially afford more.

“I think 5% is too much,” Mildbrand said. He said it is always nice to be able to help county employees to navigate through high inflation periods, he said every-

“We need to make a decision, are we really going to be concerned about retention and recruitment?”

— County board member Lester Lewis about the need to have quality insurance offerings for employees.

“I think 5% is too much”