Wayne County Commission grapples with increasing county health insurance cost

WAYNE — Wayne County could face a 23.87%, or an estimated $426,000, increase in the cost of health insurance for its next plan year, commissioners were told during their regular meeting Monday.

Bob Crabtree of Benefit Design Services shared the news of the expected cost increase at the meeting, which he attended — along with his coworker, John Snodgrass — to discuss the upcoming renewal of the Highmark Blue Cross Blue Shield West Virginia health insurance that covers Wayne County employees. Wayne County Schools employees, separately, are covered under PEIA (Public Employees Insurance Agency), which is also increasing in cost for the new coverage year.

Crabtree discussed some data relating to the county coverage group and explained that a portion of the expected increase in cost of health insurance for the county was due to medical trends.

"What we're seeing, not just here, but all over the United States, it's the same thing — hospitals have raised their costs because of labor costs," he said.

He also mentioned the factor of prescription drugs, including costly speciality drugs, which Snodgrass added can sometimes be "the only treatment possible."

Commissioner Ryan Turner said that, if the 23.87% expected increase does occur, that means that the county's health insurance costs increased 33% over two years.

For the current plan year, the county had faced what was initially expected to be a 42% increase, but ended up getting reduced down to a 8.99% increase, according to Crabtree.

One of the factors that lead to reduction is that once Wayne County EMS was up and running, its employees were added to the health insurance plan, bringing the county's total number of employees up to over 100 people and putting the county into a different group size.

The commission did not take any action regarding the county health insurance plan at the meeting.

The Wayne County Commission is next scheduled to meet at 3 p.m. Thursday, March 5 in Room 103 of the courthouse.