Prescription Benefits

Ever click on the posters name in blue on the forum page, gives lots of info about ones sickness.


All about 007bond

LEO Affairs Colonel Joined: 01 Oct 2007
Total posts: 565
Very Scary.. 565 post in about 6 weeks.

[007bond]

Had to defend my little ones..

Ever click on the posters name in blue on the forum page, gives lots of info about ones sickness.


All about 007bond

LEO Affairs Colonel Joined: 01 Oct 2007
Total posts: 565
Very Scary.. 565 post in about 6 weeks.

Being a leoaffairs colonel only means he has made a lot of posts. It doesn't indicate any status he might have at HCSO.

[Carl Shawver]

Prior to the onset of my wife's protracted and ultimately fatal illness, I served for a while on the Hillsborough County Retiree's Health Insurance Committee. I finally had to withdraw in order to devote more time to her care.

Our committee, comprised of retirees from a number of agencies in the county, interacted with the Hillsborough County Health Insurance Committee which reported directly to the County Commission.

This was an enlightening experience.

Among the things I learned were:

1. Historically, the provision of health insurance as an employee benefit originated during World War II as a hiring tool when manpower was in short supply because most able bodied men were enlisting or being drafted into military service.

2. During post-war years the provision of employee benefits expanded greatly because company profits were great and lots of money was available to attract the best possible employees.

3. As profit margins have become thinner and as government agencies have been forced to reduce expenses in response to lower tax revenues, both private corporations and government agencies have been seeking ways to reduce the cost of the benefits they provide to employees.

That brings us to our present situation in this county.

The Health Insurance Committee is under great pressure to find the best available insurance benefits for county employees at the most reasonable cost available. Methods they are employing include:

1. Transferring more of the cost of health insurance benefits from the county to the employee. This can take the form of higher monthly premiums, higher co-pays (for office visits and prescriptions) or both. This transferral of costs is taking place both in private industry and government at all levels.

2. Offering inducements to employees to change to other health insurance programs not underwritten by the county. (Once you leave the county system you can't come back, but they offered a trial period in some systems with the ability to come back.)

3. Cutting off the health insurance stipend to retirees when the retirees become eligible for Medicare. This is one of my personal peeves. They end the stipend at the very time that you have an extra premium to pay - Medicare Part A (Hospitalization) is free but Medicare Part B (Doctor's fees) requires the payment of a monthly premium.

There was one other element of serving on the Retiree's Health Insurance Committee that I found most distasteful. We were under the thumb of the County Health Insurance Committee. They scheduled our meetings and always attended the meetings, raising objections to any proposals we made that would cost the county money - which would be virtually any improvement in our situation.

Any proposals that the Retiree Committee did make had to go through the County Committee to reach the County Commission. The proposals would then be presented to the Commission with a recommendation of either approval of disapproval. I am not aware of any proposal that went to the Commission with a recommendation of approval.

I informally met with an individual Commissioner who told me that the Commission was unaware of any proposals which would benefit retirees. The statement was "It's not even on our radar."

I may seem a little preoccupied with the retiree issues, but getting back to the main point let me say that the trend to transfer more of the costs of health insurance from the employer to the employee is not just here in our county. It is a nationwide trend which includes corporations and governments at all levels, federal, state and local.

From the standpoint of the employee, I believe things will continue to get more expensive.

I hope this sheds a little light on a very complex issue.

[Average Joe]

Carl,

My understanding is that there is an insurance program in place by an entity, I think FSA, in Tallahassee that is much cheaper and almost the same benefits. If I remember Sheriff Henderson looked at the plan but the BOCC did some arm twisting to keep us in the county plan, as they needed our numbers. Did your group know anything about this insurance program? If so was it as good as I had heard?

The P.B.A. has been working on this. We have found policies that would take care of single, married with spouse and family. They ran an average of 2-4 hundred dollars less a month then what we pay thru the county. Yes if we did a separate policy from the rest of the county it would be cheeper for us and we could shop arround. This would also cause the rest of the county workers premiuns to go up. It is all politics. So unless the Sheriff would agree to separate from the rest of the county employees it would never happen.

The P.B.A. has been working on this. We have found policies that would take care of single, married with spouse and family. They ran an average of 2-4 hundred dollars less a month then what we pay thru the county. Yes if we did a separate policy from the rest of the county it would be cheeper for us and we could shop arround. This would also cause the rest of the county workers premiuns to go up. It is all politics. So unless the Sheriff would agree to separate from the rest of the county employees it would never happen.

Why not let the whole county in on it? That hould make it even less?

It would not be as cost effective. The people in the Sheriffs office tend to be healthier. Being group insurance they would have to cover everyone, including those considered high risk. This would cause the priemiums to go up.

[Carl Shawver]

Carl,

My understanding is that there is an insurance program in place by an entity, I think FSA, in Tallahassee that is much cheaper and almost the same benefits. If I remember Sheriff Henderson looked at the plan but the BOCC did some arm twisting to keep us in the county plan, as they needed our numbers. Did your group know anything about this insurance program? If so was it as good as I had heard?

When I was the Employee Benefits Coordinator for HCSO, before I retired, I was the point of contact with the Hunt Insurance Group that offered a variety of insurance coverages for Florida Sheriff's Offices. Hunt was independent of the Florida Sheriff's Association, but was (and is) a "sponsor" of FSA. (I believe they were at the time responsible for selecting the carrier that administered our Workers' Compensation program.)

At one point (and remember that this was many years ago, because I retired in 2002) the Hunt people assured me that they could provide better health insurance coverage for our active duty personnel (sworn AND civilian) than we were getting at the time AND provide the same insurance for the same cost, or less, for retirees. (I think I recall they even claimed that they could provide the insurance for retirees at no cost to the retirees.)

The fly in the ointment was that if the Sheriff pulled our people out of the County Health Insurance program the county would have great difficulty in getting affordable insurance for other county employees because they would comprise such a small group. It was a political issue. The Sheriff has an need to try to maintain a good political relationship with the County Commission.

I made a suggestion on this board a LONG time ago that the PBA should contact the Hunt Insurance Company to determine what kind of health insurance coverage might be currently available, but to my knowledge no one took my suggestion.

In answer to your question, yes the Retiree Health Insurance Committee was aware of Hunt because I was on the committee, but our mandate was limited to retiree issues so we had no input regarding how Hunt might help active employees. And, HCSO retirees are too small in number to be a group capable of negotiating a good health insurance program at reasonable cost. (The county would be overjoyed if we could do this and leave their system.)

Here's a reminder. I am a supporter of David Gee and I've been away from HCSO since 2002 so it is quite likely that I am not aware of all of the issues involved at present. Nothing I have said should be regarded as a criticism of Sheriff Gee. This is just a recitation of what happened in the past.

[Average Joe]

Thank you for refreshing the mind Carl. And like you I am a huge Dave Gee supporter, I just wish he had a different staff in place.

Take care and be safe.