Insurance premiums going up for DuPage employees

Most of the same 2,700-plus DuPage County employees who likely won't be getting raises for the second year in a row will now start paying for health insurance they currently get for free.

The employees could be asked to pay $20 a month for health and dental insurance to cover a $1.3 million gap in county health insurance costs.

Some county board members who sat through Gallagher Benefit Services' presentation on the county's insurance needs at Tuesday's finance committee meeting were upset by the news. The county had budgeted only for a 10 percent spike in insurance costs instead of the 14.5 percent that Gallagher was reporting.

Board member Linda Kurzawa said the insurers' presentation was “completely unacceptable, and the numbers are completely out of whack.

Gallagher officials said claims from county employees with HMO coverage increased more than 35 percent last year. They put part of the blame for that on a wellness initiative they promoted and touted as having long-term insurance cost savings. More than 62 percent of the county's employees belong to an HMO.

Gallagher Client Manager John Thompson told the committee that employees find out at the wellness events that they may be at risk medically and then consult their doctors. But he said that translates into savings later on because those same employees may have gotten sicker without the health screenings offered by the wellness initiative.

But board members complained the Gallagher officials did not provide any data to support those theories.

“I want you to quantify what those savings will be, said board member Jeff Redick. “I have asked for that repeatedly and I know you don't want to give me a number. That's why it's so damn frustrating here.

Gallagher Health Cost Management Consultant James Billings said the county could expect the health of 10 percent to 20 percent of the employees who participated in wellness programs to improve over time.

But it appears there's a lot of work to be done. Gallagher officials said the wellness test results from last year indicated the county's employees were generally an unhealthy lot. About 70 percent of the county's employees participated in the events, they said. Results indicated about 1,500 employees with cholesterol levels above normal and more than 600 employees were either diabetic or prediabetic, they said. In addition, they warned that statistically the employees who don't participate in such wellness events are usually medically at risk as well and don't want to participate because they don't need to be told they are unhealthy.

All the recommendations for closing the insurance budget gap were approved by county board Chairman Bob Schillerstrom. Schillerstrom's current budget proposal also calls for no employee raises for the second time in as many years.

Almost half of the money needed to cover the $1.3 million gap would come from a county insurance reserve fund. That would amount to $655,000. Another $359,520 would be generated by charging employees $10 a month for dental coverage. The county would see an additional $202,440 for charging 1,687 employees who have basic HMO coverage $10 a month. And $104,400 would be available annually by eliminating a $25,000 employee life insurance policy program.

Gallagher officials said the county should be requiring employees to pay for their insurance coverage even if they didn't need to close this budget gap. They said employees who don't contribute to their health insurance costs are commonly more ambivalent about their own health because they have no incentive to keep insurance costs down.

The county board has until the end of November to approve the insurance offerings and the upcoming budget.