A special meeting has been called for tonight, Tuesday, September 27th, 2022, where all signs point to the County Commission voting in a new employee health plan that will save the county about $500,000 over the next 2 to 3 years.
County Commission Chair Steve Shotwell shared some details with Greg O’Connor recently on AM Jackson. According to Shotwell “We are currently with Blue Cross Blue Shield, but the board is doing the analysis to see if we are going to move to Priority Health”.
What will this change mean to county employees? Shotwell says that the “disruption rate” with Priority Health is minimal, meaning that the transition from BCBS should be smooth. Shotwell went on to say “it will be a truly positive arrangement for all of our county employees, our pre 65 retirees and post 65 retirees”.
Will this move cost county employees more? “There’s always an additional cost, we have an 80/20 health plan (meaning) the employees have to pay 20%.” County Commissioner Shotwell explained “Going to Priority Health it reduces that overall cost to them and puts a “not to exceed cap” of 9.9% on it for 2024. Long term it should work out very, very well for everyone. This has been a good plan for others. Hopefully all of them (County employees) won’t notice anything other than they are going to get a new medical card (and) a new prescription card”.
