Colfax slapped with 75 percent increase in health insurance premiums for 2024
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By LeAnn R. Ralph
COLFAX — What started out as a normal, hectic, busy day on November 29 turned into something of a nightmare for Lynn Niggemann, village administrator-clerk-treasurer, when she opened an e-mail that afternoon.
Niggemann told the village board at a meeting that evening to review the 2024 budget that she had been asking the village’s insurance agent for quotes on health insurance for village employees for several months.
The budget for 2024 Niggemann had prepared for the village board’s review — or technically, the audit and finance committee which is a committee of the whole board chaired by village trustee Anne Jenson — was based on numbers that used the health insurance premium from last year.
That all went up in smoke when Niggemann read the e-mail from the insurance agent.
Last year, the village contracted with Security Health Plan of Wisconsin to provide health insurance for village employees and paid $100,343 for 2023.
For 2024, the insurance premium for Security Health Plan would be increasing to nearly $175,000 — a $75,000 increase, or in other words, a 75 percent increase.
The village pays 90 percent of the insurance premium, and the employee pays 10 percent.
In 2023, the monthly health insurance premium for a single employee was $599.
For 2024, the health insurance premium for a single employee will be $789, representing an increase of $190 per month.
In 2023, the monthly insurance premium for family coverage was $1,237.
In 2024, the monthly insurance premium for family coverage will be $2,341, representing an increase of $1,104.
For an employee with family coverage, the monthly premium deducted from their paychecks will increase from $124 to $234, or an increase of $110, Niggemann said.
For an employee with single coverage, the amount deducted from a paycheck will go from $60 to $79.
Colfax also has a “gap” policy with Security Health Plan to reduce the deductible for employees from $6,000 to $2,500, Niggemann said,
The gap policy premium is not changing, she said.
Other options
Other insurance options provided by the insurance agent were even worse.
Additional insurance plans offered by Security Health Plan ranged from $185,000 per year to $232,500 per year — or $10,000 to $57,500 more per year than the rate of the current policy with Security Health Plan.
Options from additional health insurance companies ranged from $204,000 per year to $298,000 per year, or $29,000 to $123,000 more per year than the rate offered by Security Health Plan.
Medica offers options that went from $204,000 to $237,000, with the differences resulting from deductibles for single employees ranging from $5,800 to $12,000.
Deductibles for families with Medica range from $11,600 to $24,200.
Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield premiums range from $208,000 to $241,000, with the differences resulting from deductibles for single employees ranging from $6,500 to $19,500.
Deductibles for families with Anthem range from $13,000 to $39,000.
Health Partners offers options that range from $262,000 to $274,000, with the differences resulting from deductibles for single employees ranging from $5,500 to $10,000.
Deductibles for families with Anthem range from $11,000 to $20,000.
WPS Health Insurance premiums range from $291,000 to $298,000, with the differences resulting from deductibles for single employees ranging from $8,050 to $13,000.
Deductibles with WPS for families range from $16,100 to $32,200.
Stipends
Elk Mound does not offer health insurance for employees, but the village does pay a stipend of $16,200 for each employee to put toward insurance, Niggemann said.
Niggemann performed a quick calculation, and if Colfax paid the same amount in stipends for all employees as Elk Mound pays, the stipends would amount $194,000, or $20,000 more than the health insurance.
The $194,000 is not counting the full-time EMS employees, she noted.
Carey Davis, village trustee, asked about the possibility of Colfax paying a stipend of $10,000 that employees could use to go out and buy their own health insurance.
If Colfax offered a stipend of $10,000 toward insurance, many of the village’s employees would probably quit and find other jobs, Niggemann said.
By looking at the information she received from the village’s insurance agent, the health insurance from Security Health Plan is probably the best that is available for Colfax, she said.
When asked if there was any indication of why there was a 75 percent increase in the health insurance premiums, Niggemann said it was likely due to a combination of the small “group” of Colfax employees and insurance claims.
As readers are probably aware, in the insurance industry, the larger a group is, the more the group can negotiate for better health insurance premiums.
Apparently, there is no way for municipalities to join together to form a larger group to be able to obtain better health insurance premiums.
At this point, the entire 2024 budget will have to be adjusted to account for the additional $75,000 in health insurance premiums, Niggemann said.
In the past five years, Colfax has changed health insurance providers four different times in an effort to find better rates on premiums.
Gary Stene, village trustee, who also serves as a supervisor on the Dunn County Board, noted that Dunn County has put a plan in place for county employees to get some of their health care at ReforMedicine, a direct pay medical clinic with locations in western Wisconsin.
ReforMedicine has ended up saving the county quite a lot of money, he said.
