County’s health insurance costs lower than national average

The Seneca County Health Insurance Advisory Committee had a meeting to discuss the county health insurance for the second quarter of 2008.

Ron Burns, president of Corporate One Benefits Agency Inc. presented information that included the plan cost and fund balance.

The average cost of the Seneca County Employee Health Insurance is $4,543 per employee, which, according to information presented at the meeting, is less than the national average.

Overall, Seneca County employees' total benefit cost has decreased 7 percent from the second-quarter costs of 2007.

The decrease is in part due to a restructuring of the insurance plan.

Seneca County Commissioner Dave Sauber said after a change to their insurance plan, they now have freedom to choose from where they buy prescriptions, which saves them money as well.

The fund balance for July 2008 is $208,853, which is up from June's $200,906. This number is down from earlier this year, which was as high as $453,630 in March.

Burns said the target with the fund balance is to get it back up the $600,000-$700,000 range.

"Based on what I'm looking at here, it's going to take up 12, 18 months to get there," Burns said.

An executive session followed, but no action was taken.