19 local governments join Niagara County health consortium

June 12--LOCKPORT -- Nineteen local governments in Niagara County have agreed to join a planned countywide consortium intended to share the purchase of employee health insurance.

Niagara County government and the City of Niagara Falls, the two biggest players in terms of the size of their work forces, both are on board for the work of setting up the details of the insurance program.

That's important, because Daniel M. Engert, the Somerset town supervisor who has spearheaded the consortium idea, said the state Insurance Law requires at least 2,000 employees to be covered in order for a consortium to be permissible. Without the big players, the local grouping would not have made the threshold.

With the county and Niagara Falls, the number of workers potentially covered is about 3,500.

Also on board so far are the City of Lockport; the towns of Cambria, Hartland, Lewiston, Lockport, Newfane, Niagara, Porter, Royalton, Somerset and Wheatfield; the villages of Barker, Lewiston, Middleport and Youngstown; the Niagara Falls Water Board; and the Niagara Falls Housing Authority.

Each member has to pay a share of the 10 percent local match required as a condition of the $250,000 state grant Somerset obtained to fund the organization.

Engert said that works out to about $200 per member every three months.

"The next step is to meet with labor officials and to assemble the plan design committee," Engert said.

That committee will include a member from every union in the 19 entities to work on setting up the insurance coverage, which must be "equal or better" to what all of them have now.

Engert expects three meetings with labor leaders in the coming weeks.

Other expenses include consulting, legal and actuarial costs, negotiations with the state Department of Financial Services, and preparing and administering a request for proposals for companies to serve as the new plan's third-party administrator and to offer stop-loss coverage for claims that exceed the reserve fund the consortium will create. At the end comes creation of the consortium's by-laws and determination of premiums for each member.

A feasibility study released in February by Arthur J. Gallagher & Co., the consulting firm, estimated that 16 of the 26 entities that took part in the study would save money on insurance costs. Niagara Falls did not take part in the study.

The 26 participants in the study included every other local government in Niagara County, as well as the Falls water and housing agencies, the Barker and Royalton-Hartland school districts and the Orleans County towns of Barre and Kendall. The schools and the Orleans County towns did not sign up after the study.

Neither did the Niagara County towns of Pendleton and Wilson, the City of North Tonawanda and the Village of Wilson.

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