COUNTY GRAPPLES WITH HEALTH COSTS

JACKSON - Like other governmental entities and businesses, Cape Girardeau County is facing another year of skyrocketing increases in its costs of providing health insurance to employees.

Presently, the county's 144 employees are covered by Blue Cross and Blue Shield, and were recently advised that premiums could increase by as much as 30-40 percent when the new policy year begins June 1.

This projected increase comes just one year after the county commission scaled back its coverage in an effort to keep costs down by changing coverage from 90-10 to 80-20, and dropped the $3 deductible drug card.

"The kind of increase they are talking about is unacceptable," said County Clerk Rodney Miller. "I just don't know where it's going to end.

"I think it's an issue anywhere just because of the cost of health insurance and medical care. Costs just seem to be going up more every year."

The county commission, after checking with several companies about their potential interest in bidding on the county's health insurance coverage, has decided to put its health plan out for bid. All bids are due May 20.

Presiding Commissioner Gene Huckstep said he doesn't know what to expect, but noted in a previous year when bids were sought, only two were received after a number of companies had expressed an interest.

"We just had some indications we would be in for another large rate increase and decided to see what's out there in the market place," explained Huckstep. "We mean no offense to Blue Cross and Blue Shield, but we need to see what's in the market place."

Last year the monthly cost the county pays for its coverage per employee increased from $121.54 to $133.44. The total cost is about $220,000 a year.

But the dependent coverage, which employees must pay, increased from $157.02 per month to $206.71.

Miller pointed out that in 1980, the cost per employee was $42.22 per month; in 1988 it went to $115.80. Dependent coverage, which was $48.54 a month in 1980, climbed to $146.85 in 1988.

Miller explained that many smaller counties do not provide health insurance for employees or elected officials because of the increased costs. "It all depends on what priority health insurance plays in those counties," he noted.

While there is no talk of not providing health insurance in Cape County, the increased costs have led to almost annual re-evaluations of coverage, he said.

"We have to consider reducing coverage, seeing our costs increased, or finding some way to take some of the risk ourselves. All those things have to be taken into consideration," said Miller.

"Cutting back on coverage is an option, but we hope to be able to maintain the coverage we have now at the same level. We feel like we have not had that bad of a year for claims, yet our costs for coverage seem to be going up a lot."

Both Huckstep and Miller agreed that all the commission can do is take bids, evaluate what is offered, and then pay the price because that's the way the health insurance market is now.

Several years ago local governments were struggling with an inability to get liability insurance coverage at a reasonable rate, but eventually the market opened up. Miller isn't so sure this insurance problem will disappear like the other one did.

"I don't know if it's the same situation here right now," said Miller. "In the liability crisis, the cost of insurance that they were quoting was not proportionate to the amount of claims or incidents they had.

"But with medical insurance, costs keep going up and medical care is so high. If you run into a situation with claims running close to premium dollars, then you can expect a pretty good increase."