County adjusts health insurance offering with eye on savings

Due to rising health insurance premiums -- including an increase north of 16% set to go into effect July 1 -- the Jones County Supervisors agreed to make some adjustments to the insurance the county offers its employees.

Estimates from the county’s insurance broker say the move could save the county up to $120,000 annually. 

Throughout the budgeting process for fiscal year 2027 -- which is ongoing -- Jones County officials have voiced concerns that the county would see a hike on its insurance premiums. They recently learned what that number would be.

“Our renewal for health insurance came in at 16.4% (increase), which no one wants to hear that large of a number,” Jones County Auditor Whitney Hein said. 

She said that equates to an additional $323,000 going to health insurance premiums in fiscal year 2027, which begins July 1. This didn’t sit well with Supervisor Jeff Swisher.

“It sounds like we give the insurance company $323,000 more to do the same business we are doing now,” said Swisher. He suggested the county look into Iowa Communities Assurance Pool, which is a member-owned self-insurance program for public entities in Iowa. However, Hein said ICAP primarily provides coverage for liability situations and property damage not health insurance. 

“I don’t think it hurts to shop when someone is jacking us up $320k,” Swisher said. 

Hein said the county has seen a high numbers of claims recently, which attributed to the premium spike. 

“It’s about how our plans are being utilized,” Hein told the board. “We have some high usage and high claimants. I am hoping that we level out a bit. We had several years of a 1% or under increase when others were facing 3, 4 and 5% increases. But, all of a sudden, it has caught up with us. It might seem like a large increase, but we didn’t have much of an increase for several years.” 

Hein and Supervisors Board Chairman Joe Oswald recently met with the county’s insurance broker to explore cost savings options. 

“Our broker helped us survey employees, and based on that, I have worked on developing some alternatives … We are looking at offering more than one plan to have different deductibles,” Hein said.

Those plans have deductibles of $750, $1,500 and $3,000. Each plan is in the same network.

“The plan with the $1,500 deductible is most similar to the current year (plan),” Hein said. “…If (employees) choose a higher-deductible plan, that’s less premium that the county would be paying.”

Hein said brokers told her a reasonable expectation would be 60% of the county’s employees would opt in to the plan with the lower deductible, 25% would opt for the $1,500 deductible and 15% would choose the highest deductible. 

“This would produce an approximate savings of $120,000 in the first year, but that is based on how people select the plans,” Hein told the Supervisors. 

County lands highway grant

A state program that uses federal-aid swap funds to repair county highways is doling out at least $500,000 to Jones County for an upcoming project. 

Jones County Engineer Derek Snead said he received word from the Iowa DOT that Jones County’s application to the Highway Safety Improvement Program was accepted. The money will be put toward a new concrete overlay on E28 west of Anamosa between County Road X28 and the Buffalo Creek Bridge. The project is estimated to cost $5.8 million and cover nearly three miles of highway. It is scheduled in the county’s five-year road construction program to begin in fiscal year 2027. 

They liked our grant,” Snead said. “There is a lot of interest in the HSIP program … they indicated to us that our (application) is the strongest, and any additional funding (on top of the $500k) could be transferred to us. We could get up to $800,000.”

Snead said the county is in the process of acquiring right-of-way to help facilitate the project. 

Other business

• The Supervisors approved a partial bid to apply lawn fertilizer at both the courthouse and the county’s Broadway Place offices in Anamosa. The board opened one lone bid for the work submitted by Minger Mowing and Landscaping, which provided quotes for a variety of services. Due to the lack of other bids, the Supervisors approved two of the services -- Spring crabgrass preventative application and fall weed control application for $564 apiece. 

• The board approved a final voucher to Manatts Inc. for its work on the county’s X31 paving project from Anamosa to Old Cass Road. Snead lauded Manatts and said he hopes to work with the Brooklyn, Iowa, company again in the future. 

• The Supervisors approved the county’s 2027 construction plan, which has been in the works for months and includes the recent addition of a large grading project on Dales Ford Road. That project is slated in the plan for fiscal year 2030, but Snead said dates in the plan fluctuate. 

‘These projects are a couple years out and we can change them,” Snead said.

• Snead reported that contractors are set to begin work on a project to replace a closed bridge on Stone City Road --which spans a backwater channel for the Wapsipinicon River -- with a box culvert, but high water levels are hindering the start date. He said the water level has been going down in recent days and anticipates work will begin soon.

• The Supervisors approved the posting of a 10-ton weight limit on a 120th Street bridge near Bear Creek located one third of a mile east of 170th Avenue southwest of Amber. Snead said the bridge’s wing walls are struggling to hold back the embankment near the bridge. He said county staff are surveying the bridge and Snead hopes to remove the bridge and replace it with large-diameter pipes sometimes this summer.