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SCHENECTADY COUNTY
Insurance deal saves county cash
$825K trimmed by encouraging alternate coverages
BY KATHLEEN MOORE Gazette Reporter
Reach Gazette reporter Kathleen Moore at 395-3120 or moore@dailygazette.com

    The county is saving money by paying its employees to get health insurance elsewhere.
    Since 2005, the county has saved $2 million in health insurance coverage through the new policy. County employees were paid $1,000 each year if they got health insurance from somewhere else — such as adding onto a spouse’s insurance — and $2,000 if they found coverage elsewhere for their entire family.
    So far, 75 employees have signed up, most of whom have removed their entire family from county health coverage. The biggest increase came this year, after the county upped the ante to $4,000 for families and $2,000 for individuals who cancel their county insurance. To get the money, they must prove they have adequate insurance through some other source.
    “It’s kind of a painless way to cut costs,” said County Attorney Chris Gardner. “We’re always looking at [raising] co-pays, employee contributions — this was a good way of saving money without having a negative impact on our members.”
    The county spends $15,000 on family insurance, so it saves roughly $11,000 for every employee who takes a $4,000 waiver. With 75 employees now waiving their county insurance, the county will save $825,000 this year.
    “To look at what you’d have to do to save over $800,000 a year, it would be pretty draconian,” Gardner said. “This is a positive for the county and the employee.”
    The program started with just 19 employee waivers in 2005 after CSEA agreed to let the county offer waivers to union members. It grew to 51 employees last year after SEIU and Council 82 agreed to the deal.
    Then the county renegotiated with CSEA, offering to double the waivers to encourage more workers to sign up. Sure enough, 75 workers asked for insurance waivers this year, and Gardner hopes more will join if the county’s other unions approve the new offer. At $4,000 for family coverage, employees may be able to pay nearly their entire contribution to health insurance at another agency, Gardner said.
    “For $2,000, it may not be a good deal, but for $4,000, it may be more attractive,” he said.
    Ways and Means Chairman Philip Fields, D-Schenectady, added in a press release that waivers are an effective way to handle the rising cost of health insurance.
    “This is a new way of doing business, a better way of doing business, and a highly efficient way of doing business,” he said.
    The county is looking hard for ways to save money. Officials have projected a projected $12 million to $16 million revenue shortfall going into 2009.

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Use incentive plan to cut health insurance costs

    With the cost of providing health insurance a staggering $15,000 per employee (at least for those on family plans), Schenectady County has the right idea giving workers a financial incentive to look elsewhere for coverage. It’s an idea that other municipal governments have tried, but many more ought to.
    With two-worker households so common these days, it’s not unusual — when both workers are lucky enough — for spouses to have a choice between the husband’s and wife’s insurance plan. Usually, they take whichever one offers them the best deal between coverage and price, but on rare occasion — when one plan offers better coverage in one area, while the other is better in another, and neither worker has to pay any of the premium — they’ll sign up for both. It’s an extravagance of the worst kind that’s particularly hard to justify because of the millions of Americans that have no coverage at all. But benefits are benefi ts.
    Especially in such instances, employers — and if the coverage requires no employee contribution, it’s likely that they’re in the public sector — should try to get their workers to drop one of the plans. But even in cases where employees do contribute, and it’s a choice between theirs and their spouse’s plan, public employers should try to make sure it’s the spouse’s plan that gets chosen. Even if it takes a $4,000 cash payment to entice the worker to switch, as in the case of Schenectady County, so be it: The net savings — $11,000 — are well worth it.
    Schenectady County announced last week that it will save $825.000 this year as a result of 75 employees taking the recently enhanced cash offer. That’s a good deal for taxpayers and, presumably, the workers as well. More municipalities that don’t already offer such incentives ought to at least explore them.

Here's an idea for EVERYONE----we ALL just stop paying right here and right now......we are Americans, not a bunch of mice in a maze......we dont need incentives, we dont need the government, we dont need compensation, we need the right road, the right time and the right way......