KENT, Conn.—The Board of Selectmen voted Tuesday, April 30, to move the town employees’ health insurance plan from Anthem to the Connecticut Partnership Plan.
They continued the employees’ level of cost sharing at 10 percent.
In an 11th-hour meeting before the May 2 budget hearing, First Selectman Marty Lindenmayer told his board that Sharon teachers voted the week before to drop out of the Regional School District’s Anthem plan. When the teachers opted to drop out of that plan, it reduced regional enrollment to fewer than the required 50 persons, forcing Kent to look for different options.
Lindenmayer and his staff spent Friday, April 25, investigating other potential insurance plans “but there was nothing that wouldn’t increase our costs,” he reported.
It was eventually determined that enrolling in the Connecticut Partnership Plan at a level mirroring current coverage would decrease the town’s health insurance cost by $59,000 if the non-union town employees’ cost share remains at 10 percent.
The town crew, which is part of the Teamster’s Union, contributes 4 to 11 percent in cost sharing (depending on whether it is a single employee or a family), but its members are about to go into negotiations and that could change.
Town Treasurer Barbara Herbst said that if the town hall employees’ share was dropped to 5 percent, the savings could decrease to $40,000 and if it is eliminated altogether, the saving would be about $3,500.
What is lost in translation is the town-funded Health Savings Account, which currently helps town employees to the tune of $4,000 with co-pays and other costs not covered.
“That would be gone,” Lindenmayer said, “but there would be significant savings for the town if you look at the bottom line between Anthem and the state plan.”
The HSA was established because accepting high deductibles with the Anthem plan reduced costs for the town. The Connecticut Partnership Plan has a lower deductible.
Lindenmayer said he did not favor removing all cost-sharing but, because the HSA would be gone, he preferred dropping the cost-share percentage to 5 percent to take “some of the sting out of it for the employees.”
Selectman Lynn Mellis Worthington argued that the cost share level should not be dropped for town hall employees when Department of Public Works negotiations are pending.
“Perception matters here, and I don’t think it’s smart to go below 10 percent when you are going into negotiations,” she said. She argued that the lower deductibles with the state plan would reduce the impact on employees.
Lindenmayer said he also wants to freeze the opt-out plan that compensates employees who choose not to use town insurance. He would keep the opt-out provision for people currently using it but not offer it to future employees or those experience qualifying events such as births, marriages, divorces and the like. That benefit is capped at $15,000.
“I think it has run its course,” he said. “I think we’re done.”
The board deferred action on the opt-out provision until they can rewrite the policy. They will tackle it before the end of the fiscal year.
