HEALTH INSURANCE Trustees OK plan to require co-pay

The decision came partly as a result of contract negotiations with firefighters.
By JOHN W. GOODWIN JR.
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
BOARDMAN -- Elected officials and all managerial employees in the township will now pay a portion of their medical insurance premiums.
Trustees unanimously voted this week to require a 10 percent co-pay for health insurance from themselves, department heads and other management-level employees not covered under collective bargaining agreements.
The new co-pay requirements will affect 15 township employees, including two trustees.
Trustees Elaine Mancini and Kathy Miller receive health-insurance benefits through the township. Trustee Thomas Costello opted out of the township health-insurance plan.
The co-pay requirement will be made retroactive to the beginning of this month.
The township spends $4,566 annually for single-person traditional coverage and $11,415 for family coverage. The cost for single preferred provider organization coverage is $4,166 annually and $10,414 for family PPO coverage.
Employees who selected the traditional coverage plan will pay $456 annually for a single person or $1,141 annually for family coverage.
Those who selected the PPO plan will pay $416 annually for a single person or $1,041 annually for family coverage.
Negotiations
Mancini said the decision to require co-payments from management-level staff came, in part, as a result of contract negotiations with firefighters.
She said the township requested that firefighters pay 10 percent of their health-insurance cost, but a fact finder said that could only be considered if management contributed the same amount.
"The time for this has come. In the business world there are very few private companies that do not require a co-payment," she said. "[Management] has to take the lead in fiscal responsibility. According to the fact finder, if we don't pay then why should the union."
Trustees are still in negotiations with firefighters. Both sides, however, have accepted the fact finder's report.
Mancini said no members of the five unions representing township employees currently make a co-payment for health insurance.
She said, however, that trustees are planning to make the co-payment request of each union as negotiations come around.
Mancini said the co-payment requirement also falls in line with trustees' plans to curb township spending, something William Leicht, township clerk, has made clear they must do.
Leicht had said that in the past several years the township has consistently outspent its revenue. He told trustees in July that, at current spending rates, the township will outspend its revenue by $2 million annually over the next several years.
Cutting back
Trustees agreed to cut back on spending with measures such as decreasing money allotted to each department.
In the past, each of the three departments -- road, police and fire -- would receive $200,000 every year as a capital budget. That number in 2005 will be reduced to $100,000 for each department.
Leicht also gave trustees several options he said can help slow spending and save the township money over time.
Trustees will meet Thursday to discuss those options and decide which one is best for the township.
jgoodwin@vindy.com