Lorain County commissioners increase county employee health care plan premiums by 13% for 2026

The Lorain County Board of Commissioners on Friday accepted a controversial plan to increase employee health care premium costs by 13 percent in 2026. The board said the increase will offset rising health care costs and medical inflation and rebuild its plan reserves over the next five years. "This is a very rich health care plan" for the nearly 1,800 people who work for Lorain County, Commissioner Jeff Riddell said. The county has a "self-funded" plan, meaning it pays claims by plan participants rather than paying premiums to an insurance company. Riddell promised that county officials would continue to look at the plan and rates in 2026, what it pays for and what the market provides. During a presentation Sept. 23, Chelko Consulting Group had recommended commissioners consider raising health care insurance premiums paid by those on the county health plan by 13 percent. For the county to break even the increase would have been 10.1 percent. The 13 percent will allow the county to rebuild reserve funds to continue to provide medical, prescription drug, dental and vision coverage to employees, officials said. In 2015, county employee health care claims were $29.6 million, which increased to $48.9 million this year with about the same average number of participants, according to county officials. A collection of unionized county employees attended Friday's meeting to question commissioners about the premium adjustment, with one calling the increase "unsustainable." Jacob Reed, president of United Auto Workers Local 2192 and whose union represents Lorain County Job & Family Services and Children Services workers in the county, asked why the county's plan reserve for medical coverage was so high when the law says it only has to be about $4 million. Also, he asked where the interest money earned on the reserves goes, if the county can borrow against that and what the rationale is for such a high reserve when the county is protected by stop-loss insurance. Stop-loss insurance protects employers like Lorain County that self-fund their health insurance plans against unpredictable losses, and make insurance companies liable for losses that exceed deductibles. Job & Family Services employee and union member Shawna Hatfield told the board that her raises for 2024 and 2025 were swallowed up by increased health insurance costs, and she can't afford to put her children on her own insurance. She's not the only one at Children Services or JFS with that problem, she said, as increased health care premiums turned some pay increases into pay decreases. "So no real raises for two years, and now you want to increase our insurance costs again, and decrease another pay increase," Hatfield said. "We deserve to be able to pay for our basic needs and not have more money taken from us for insurance." Job & Family Services employee Odis Lovejoy asked if the commissioners have the same medical coverage as their employees. Lovejoy said he can't afford to pay the medical premiums, hospitalization copays went up last time the county adjusted and those costs "hit your pockets a lot different than they hit ours." If commissioners are going to raise employee health care premiums, at least raise their pay so they can afford it, he said. All three commissioners are on the same insurance their employees are, with the same deductibles and co-pays, Riddell said. Health care reserves are set by law, and "if we don't maintain a reserve, someday with the checkbook is empty, none of us will have hospitalization," he said. The stop-loss is by claim, so if for example a claim goes over $500,000 stop-loss insurance pays the rest, Riddell said. "A $1 million claim, this plan would pay the first half million and stop-loss pays the second. It doesn't insure the plan, it insures each claim," he said. Commissioner Marty Gallagher said the commissioners are "very conscious" of their medical coverage and the county's "very, very, very good policy." But rates and costs are going up, he said. "As an employer it is hard, it is very hard to get good insurance and especially with participation. We have to look at a bunch of options to keep the costs down," Gallagher said. "It's our policy and we pay for it," Riddell said. Contact Dave O'Brien at (440) 329-7129 or dobrien@chroniclet.com