When two public labor unions go back to the bargaining table with Levy County government officials in the near future, they will insist the county remove its contract proposal to cap employer contributions for employee health insurance plans. The unions say it’s a deal killer.
The International Association of Firefighters Local 4069 and Laborers International Union of North America Local 630 submitted letters on Friday to Orlando labor attorney Wayne Helsby rejecting the county’s labor contract that would have capped county contributions at $10,000 per employee annually.
Helsby works for Allen Norton & Blue. He represents the Levy County Commission in labor talks along with County Coordinator Wilbur Dean.
Part of the county contract proposal was to increase employee base salaries by $4,700 over the next three years. The pay raise included $1,700 in the first year to offset health insurance costs.
Ronnie Burris, business agent for Local 630, said the increase in base salaries sounded good, but the cap on employer contributions wasn’t acceptable. He said the cap could erase salary increases in years two and three of the contract.
The proposed cap resulted in a rejection of the contract by both unions. Unions say the county was offering to freeze employee insurance premiums the first year but from that point forward employees would have to absorb any increases in health insurance costs. It wasn’t acceptable.
Burris said he is involved in negotiating 25 public employee contracts in Florida but Levy County is the only governmental entity that has proposed permanently capping the county’s contributions to employee health insurance.
Burris said he asked his insurance agent of record if the capping of employer health insurance contributions was the beginning of a trend in local governments in Florida. He said the agent told him it wasn’t a trend and the contract proposal sounded unusual to him.
“Someone is making a big commission off Levy County,” Burris said. “My agent of record believes something is going on.”
Burris said Levy County has used Blue Cross Blue Shield as its health insurance provider for 20 years and that type of long-term relationship can lead to higher rates. He said the agent representing the county probably kept the county officials happy by freezing rates for the first year and leaving the final two years open to big premium increases by capping the county’s contributions.
“We’re going to sit down and tell them we’re not interested in a cap,” Burris said. “That’s ripping off the employees big time, but it’s also ripping off the taxpayers.”
Burris said taxpayers are ripped off because they have to fund the big increases in insurance premiums that result when the county uses the same insurance company for 20 years and lacks the expertise to run the bid process properly. He said taxpayers are being kept in the dark about why the county continues to use the same insurance company year after year.
Two years ago, when the county went out for bids, Burris said county staff gave insurance companies three weeks to return the bids and required bidders to provide 10 bound folders containing their bid offers. Burris said insurance companies needed a 90-day turnaround to submit competitive bids. The county gave them about 20 days. He said when United Healthcare saw 10 bound folders were required, they refused to comply. The county disqualified the company for that reason.
When the county stopped funding family coverage two years ago, Burris said some of the lowest paid employees at the road department took a $7 an themselves. He said an employee making $12 an hour began making what amounted to $5 an hour as a result of the backdoor pay cut.
County Commission Chairman John Meeks said the board has probably used Blue Cross Blue Shield for 20 years. He doesn’t doubt it. Meeks said the board tried other insurers before he became a commissioner and the attempt was a disaster. The board has stayed with Blue Cross Blue Shield.
Meeks said United Healthcare’s bid two years ago was rejected because the company didn’t submit a solid bid. The company said its bid was subject to underwriter review, which meant the bid could be changed after an internal company review.
“You can’t use that,” Meeks said.
Meeks added that the $10,000 cap is needed. He said the county can’t continue to absorb increases in employee health insurance premiums. He said many counties already have a lower cap than Levy County. The cap in other counties is in $6,000 to $7,000 range.
“We’re still at the top of the chart with $10,000. We’re better than anyone else,” Meeks said. “The trouble is we need to cap costs. We can’t continue to absorb costs. The bottom line is we have fabulous insurance. Its great insurance but it costs a ton of money. We can’t continue to take these hits year after year.”
Burris said the county staff members involved in writing and submitting bids – County Coordinator Wilbur Dean, County Human Resources Director Jacqueline Martin and Susan Haines of the county attorney’s office – don’t have the expertise to deal with the health insurance bid process.
He said the county needs to hire a professional health insurance risk manager who knows the business and can prepare proper bids to submit to health insurance companies, or hire a company that specializes in health insurance do the work.
“If they want to get the health insurance companies to submit good bids they need some company or person that knows what they’re doing,” Burris said.
Meeks said Burris is making more excuses. He said it’s nothing new. He said health insurance companies are operated by professionals who know how to respond to the county’s bid process and meet the county’s deadlines.
He remains disappointed in the way the unions rejected the proposed contract without giving the county a chance to respond.
“I had hoped if the unions planned on rejecting the contract that they would have left us time to make a counter offer, but they didn’t.” Meeks said.
Burris said the county needs to stop blaming unions and employees for their problems with health insurance. He said the unions and employees are not at fault and he said the county should stop shifting costs to employees who can’t afford to pay the bill. He said that’s what’s going on now with contract talks.
Levy Board of County Commission & Union Contract Negotiations Posted August 24, 2019
