ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, June 26, 1996 TAG: 9606260039
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: RICHARD FOSTER STAFF WRITER
Bedford County employees thought they already had heard the good news after the Board of Supervisors voted Monday to give them more money to lessen the impact of increasing health insurance costs.
But then came Tuesday, and an announcement from County Administrator Bill Rolfe that there will be no decrease in take-home pay for county employees because of insurance, after all. The amount county employees pay for health insurance will not change.
"I'm delighted, elated, and every other adjective you can think of to express joy," Sheriff Mike Brown said. Some of his young deputies with families faced the prospect of take-home salaries below working poverty levels if their insurance costs grew as recently proposed.
Commissioner of Revenue Faye Eubank said, "It's really more than we could have hoped for, it really is." Her employees, she said, are "just so relieved."
The county now subsidizes each employee's paycheck by $130 a month for health insurance, regardless of which options - self, self and child, self and spouse, or family plan - the employee selects.
Monday, the board voted to increase that amount to $216. The problem is that some types of insurance cost more than others.
Single employees buying insurance only for themselves would have paid just $34 a month after the county subsidized their $250 fee; but those with family insurance, which costs $625, would have paid $409 out of their monthly paychecks.
On Tuesday, Rolfe, acting on the authority of the supervisors, decided to stagger the amounts contributed to each employee depending on the insurance plan selected. Those with single-employee insurance will receive about $187 a month, while those with the family plan will receive about $309.
In keeping with current county policy, employees who don't buy their insurance through the county will receive nothing.
The net result? No change in the amount that each employee pays for health insurance. Under the new plan, county employees will pay the same out-of-pocket cost for insurance as now - $63 a month for single-employee insurance, $136 for employee plus a child, $311 for employee and spouse, and $316 a month for family insurance.
The new plan saves taxpayers some $10,000 annually because it uses less money than the supervisors' original designation of $216 per employee per month.
Some may be concerned that county employees are not all being paid the same amount in insurance benefits from the county, Rolfe said, "But everybody's getting treated equally because it's not costing any more from everybody's paychecks."
The county's health insurance crisis began in May when Trigon Blue Cross Blue Shield, which also covers the county schools, said it would raise Bedford County's rates by as much as 60 percent because of the high number of expensive, long-term illnesses among county employees.
Bedford County bought new insurance from Mid-Atlantic Medical Services Inc. under a new pool plan organized by the Virginia Association of Counties, but its rates still increased by 30 percent to 40 percent.
The Board of Supervisors and county employees waited to see if the county schools would join them in the new health plan, thus lowering county employees' rates. On Monday, the county School Board declined to enter into joint health insurance with the other county employees for at least a year.
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