McKean County officials are looking to join a statewide health
purchasing cooperative that would allow the municipality to realize
a substantial savings in vision insurance premiums.

On Monday, County Administrator Richard Casey said the county
commissioners are slated to vote on Dec. 27 to join the
Pennsylvania Municipal Health Insurance Cooperative, which is a
larger cooperative associated with the county’s current Northern
Counties Health Insurance Purchasing Cooperative, of which McKean
County is a founding member.

“It’s a very, very large cooperative that we are being allowed
to become a part of based on our membership in Northern Counties,”
Casey said. “By joining this, we will be able to offer our
employees the same, or in some cases slightly better, program for
vision coverage. It will allow us to do pretty much the same things
that are currently done with our health and prescription drug
costs.”

According to Casey, about 170 county employees are currently
enrolled in the health and prescription drug plan, adding he
expects the same amount will likely elect to take part in the
vision program.

“It could vary a little bit because people might have vision
coverage from another source,” Casey said.

Casey said after crunching some figures, it appears the county
could realize a savings upwards of 40 percent on the premiums under
the new vision plan. “That is really a rough estimate.”

“We’re hoping it will save us a substantial amount of money,”
Casey said, adding the savings estimated will depend on how many
employees opt into the single or family plans.

As it stands, Casey said all of the members of the Northern
Counties Health Insurance Purchasing Cooperative will be a part of
the Pennsylvania Municipal Health Insurance Cooperative, including
other founding members Clinton and Clearfield counties.

Casey said, all told, there are 88 members associated with the
larger cooperative, including boroughs, townships, authorities and
councils of government.

“The municipalities are pretty much located across the state,”
Casey said.

The large amount of municipal governments involved will help
lead to more buying power for those represented.

According to a copy of a legal notice concerning the cooperative
that appeared in Saturday’s edition of The Era, the county would
participate in the cooperative for an initial term of three years
from the date it first elects to purchase benefits through it.

Meanwhile, the legal notice indicates that no borrowing will be
required of the county and the funds to implement its obligations
under the agreement would come from “normal and usual budgeted
amounts for such matters.”

Like all municipalities, the county is looking at trying to save
on the increased costs of health insurance. Earlier, Casey said
county officials expected a small increase in premiums for health
care and prescription drug coverage next year, adding that figure
could fall between 10 and 15 percent.

Casey said the losses absorbed in the cooperative are more than
covered by the contributions into it, adding instead of the
insurance company keeping the money, the counties will get it back.
The county is slated to receive a large chunk of money during the
first half of next year, depending on any additional health
insurance claims.

Last year, county workers under the employee only option saw
what they paid into the program hiked from nothing to 8 percent of
the total health and prescription drug premium cost. Meanwhile,
those under the family plan experienced a decrease in the
contribution rate.

County officials would also like to probe obtaining dental
insurance coverage through the statewide cooperative.

“I think we also need to look into that … maybe there will be
the same sort of savings at the same level of care that we can get
here,” Casey said. “We’ll wait and see what is available. If it
(cooperative) can offer the same type of savings, we would go after
that.”

In a separate move, officials from across the county are also
looking at establishing a McKean County Health Insurance
Consortium, which would be comprised of various employers who are
looking at reducing the cost of health insurance coverage for their
workers.

The commissioners are scheduled to vote on a resolution to join
the cooperative during their Dec. 27 meeting, which will also
feature a final vote on the proposed 2007 county budget.