Nov. 3--Daviess County employees will see their health insurance premiums rise again next year, as county officials strive to keep up with rising medical costs.

Although an amount hasn't been decided, county Judge-Executive Reid Haire said insurance premiums for employees would likely increase between 20 and 31 percent.

County officials raised the premiums for workers in 2007. At the time, the county was experiencing what Fiscal Court members hoped was a temporary spike in medical costs.

Instead of declining, however, medical expenses have held at the higher rate.

"It does not appear to have been an anomaly," said county treasurer Jim Hendrix.

Last year, the county's medical expenditures increased about 31 percent, Haire said.

"It's my understanding that it did not have to do with excessive numbers of claims filed," Haire said. "It was just a 31 percent increase in costs."

Hendrix said 80 percent of the county's medical insurance cost comes from payments on claims. The county is self-insured but has a re-insurance policy that covers employees when claims exceed $50,000.

The premium increase enacted last year has kept the county from draining other funds to cover employee medical expenses but was not enough to build up a sizable insurance reserve fund, Hendrix said.

At the time the increases were enacted, one goal was to build up a $500,000 insurance reserve.

"The new premiums they did set are holding their own," Hendrix said. "What you would hope to do is establish a little reserve.

"At the end of every month, we're (almost) at zero," Hendrix said.

The fear is a month of very high medical expenses would throw the insurance fund into the red.

Currently, the average cost to county employees with family plan health insurance ranges between $115 and $130 per month. The amount of the premium increase will likely be decided this week, Haire said.

"I'm hoping it will be closer to the 20 percent increase," Haire said. "You hate to give a raise the first of July and take it back the first of January, but those costs are costs we have to pass along to the employees."

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Hendrix said the county considered switching their re-insurance policy to one offered by the Kentucky Association of Counties. But there wouldn't have been a cost savings to the county from the switch, Hendrix said.

KACo offers preventative programs, such as a wellness incentive and screenings, but the county has already adopted similar programs.

"KACo has a good plan, but it's a holistic approach and we've already taken the majority of the steps," Hendrix said. "You can't reap a huge savings by going with KACo."

The county now pays 88 percent of employees' health insurance premiums.

"It's a good policy and has good catastrophic coverage," Haire said of the county's health insurance policy. "If you have major surgery, it's a life-saver, as opposed to those thousands of people who don't have health insurance at all."