January 7, 2008

HEALTH BENEFITS COST SAVINGS TO BE STUDIED

      Rensselaer County is one step closer to studying the idea of offering county employees an incentive to opt out of county health insurance.  A resolution sponsored by the Legislature's Democratic Minority made it out of the Rules Committee on Thursday and will be on the agenda of Tuesday's monthly meeting. Democrats have included the cost cutting idea in their budget recommendations for several years.  The idea also has the support of members of the Majority as well.

According to Minority Leader Ginny O'Brien, "I am encouraged by the unanimous committee vote and hope we can move forward on a cost benefit analysis.  Before we can make any  decision on the plan's viability or extent of cost savings, we need an audit and employee survey to determine level of participation.  Labor needs to be involved as well."

O'Brien says, "Offering similar incentives to employees to opt out of health insurance has worked in other counties and towns, as well as at HVCC. In Rockland County, for example, the State Comptroller's Office projected a savings of $4.7 million."

 The proposed resolution would request that the State Comptroller undertake a similar audit to examine opportunities for the county to provide health insurance coverage to employees at a lower cost.

County Legislator Flora Fasoldt, a member of the Health Committee, said, "If the county has an opportunity to control or reduce the cost of providing health insurance to employees, then we have a responsibility to collect and review the financial data necessary to make a sound decision. This could be a win-win for both county employees and county taxpayers."

Kevin Harrington, a member of the Personnel Committee and a longtime proponent of the idea, said, " We owe it to the taxpayers to conduct a comprehensive study of the issue to determine the economic benefit. Health insurance is part of an employee’s compensation and is a significant part of local government’s personal service costs.

The legislation introduced by the Democratic Minority would "direct the Legislature's Personnel Committee, responsible for county employee matters, to work with the Bureau of Human Resources and the County's health insurance consultant to conduct a comprehensive study and review of financial data,  to determine whether payments offered in lieu of health insurance coverage (buyout) incentives to eligible employees will result in effectively controlling or reducing the cost of providing coverage to employees and retirees."

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