Community Corner

Self Insurance Committee Exploring Law's Effect on Growing Membership

With 88 new members and the need for a four percent increase in budget in the upcoming year, Self Insurance Committees have asked Ovation officials to determine how many new 20-somethings were added under the state's new insurance coverage laws.


Insurance costs for the town will go up by four percent in the upcoming year and with an 88-member increase in the rolls over recent months, officials are exploring how new state laws may be affecting the town’s self insurance costs.

A change in the law, which allows for any children 26 or under to be added to their plan, could be a prominent factor in the increase, Board of Finance members said.

“We need to be careful because there are many things that could have led to the increase, but we have asked Ovation to look into it,” Labieniec, Self Insurance Committee chairman, said Tuesday. “We expect to get some more information back in January.”

The Self Insurance Committee this month unveiled their plans for the upcoming 2012-13 fiscal year, working alongside representatives of Ovation to set a budget of $20.514 million, a four percent increase over the existing $19.725 million budget.

Ovation officials had proposed an increase of 9.4 percent, or a budget of $21.585 million, with 6 percent attributed to claim trends and the remaining for the increase in members covered under town insurance plans.

The 88-member increase has pushed the total number of people covered under town policies to near 1,200 individuals for the medical plan with slightly more than that covered under the dental plan. Of those, 76.5 percent are considered Board of Education employees and 23.5 percent are town hall/government employees.

“The increase in membership clearly played some role in the projected increase. If is due in large part to children up to age of 26, they are not costly members on an insurance plan. Should you increase expenditures by just that if it is smaller total?” Labieniec said.

“We need to do our work to make sure that we have the best data available moving forward,” he said. Feld said the totals regarding the number of those in their 20’s would certainly affect the way the committee addresses budget needs.

There is some good news on the insurance front, however. Labieniec said that through October, the most recently available numbers, the town is “trending ahead of the curve” with a $428,000 surplus four months into the year. The surplus is $110,000 better than over the same point in 2010-11 when the town saw record savings.

This version changes attribution to comments which were not made by Sandra Feld.


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