Brunswick may restore spousal insurace coverage

Dec. 16--BRUNSWICK COUNTY -- County officials are hoping to bring back spousal health care coverage for county employees.

Brunswick County Commissioners adopted a resolution of intent to participate in the N.C. Health Insurance Pool starting July 1, 2018. The newly formed pool of local governments is expected to provide fixed costs, risk sharing over a larger population and minimized cost fluctuations from year to year by spreading the cost over more entities, said County Manager Ann Hardy.

By joining the pool, commissioners will also be presented with the opportunity to offer spousal health care coverage, something that hasn't been offered by the county for nearly three years and has hampered the county's ability to recruit, Hardy said. When spousal coverage was cut from the county budget due to costs, about 172 employees lost spousal coverage. At the time, the county was paying about $3.6 million annually for spousal coverage. By entering into the pool, the county could offer coverage at a county cost of about $1.6 million annually.

The decision to offer spousal coverage will be made during the budgetary process in the spring of 2018 for fiscal year 2019, Hardy said. Insurance would continue to be offered through Blue Cross Blue Shield.

Hardy said the county would be able to offer its own set of coverage and benefits that could be different from other entities in the pool.

"If we were to go with the state health plan, we would have the same benefits offered through the state, whereas this is a custom design for each entity in the pool," Hardy said.

Individual employees who use the county health plan would not notice a difference starting in July, when the county hopes to join the pool. If the county decides to include spousal coverage in the budget and the budget is approved, enrollment would begin July 1, 2018 and it would be a "qualifying event," Hardy said.

Spouses enrolled in a plan that starts Jan. 1 would be able to leave that plan and transition to the county plan if they're eligible, Hardy said. If the spouse has insurance provided by an employer or other insurance they would not be eligible for the county plan, Hardy said.

While the county provides health insurance for their employees, Hardy said the employee would have to pay a premium for their family or spouse if they're covered.

Based on the adopted resolution, the county will join the NCHIP July 1 if certain conditions are satisfied by the NCHIP by May 31, 2018, including building a risk pool that will consist of no less than 2,500 people.

Hardy said the county hopes joining the NCHIP will be a long-term, sustainable solution for employee health insurance coverage.

"This is not a situation where they're giving us a low rate for a year and then they're going to increase the rates," Hardy said. "Their commitment to us is rate stabilization for the long term."

Reporter Makenzie Holland can be reached at 910-343-2371 or [email protected].

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