Health insurance costs increasing for Twin Falls County government

Twin Falls County Commissioners on Thursday approved a 9.7% increase in health insurance premiums in an annual renewal of a contract with Select Health for the coming fiscal year, which begins Oct. 1.

“Unfortunately, in this environment, health insurance hasn’t slowed down in many, many years,” Commissioner Don Hall said. “It just keeps going up.”

But the 9.7% increase doesn’t necessarily mean that’s what county employees will pay.

Health insurance costs increasing for Twin Falls County government

Commissioner Brent Reinke speaks to employees Wednesday, March 20, 2024, during the grand opening of the Family Health Services Downtown Urgent Care Clinic and Pharmacy in Twin Falls. Twin Falls County Commissioners on Thursday approved a 9.7% increase in health insurance premiums for the coming fiscal year.

County Clerk Kristina Glascock told the Times-News the county pays 100% of health insurance premiums for employees, but employees pay for their dependents.

It costs $1,300 to add a family to the county health insurance plan, Glascock said, which can sometimes turn away prospective employees.

“It’s hard to attract when you’ve got other counties or other entities that pay a lot to subsidize dependent premiums,” she said.

Part of the reason for the 9.7% increase is a high utilization rate, which Glascock said is currently running at 100% or more.

“Our utilization is high,” Glascock said. “We should be around 85% for our utilization. We just have a lot of claims.”

One major health issue for an employee can really skew the costs for the county, Hall said. Medical care is not cheap.

“And then it’s also, how healthy are your folks?” Hall said. “I’m trying not to say age, but age has a lot to do with it. As we age, we have more utilization of health care.”

Before renewing the health insurance contract, the commissioners approved a 0% cost increase in the dental care contract with Blue Cross of Idaho.

“Zeroes are good,” Commissioner Rocky Matthews said.

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