Village of La Grange to see a Significant Rise in Healthcare Costs

“I’ll start with the good news,” said Trustee Bill Holder to begin Monday night’s village board meeting.

The good news was that the village would not see an increase in its life insurance policy premiums to staff this year.

“However,” Holder said, “ that’s not true of our health insurance program.”

Trustees voted unanimously Monday night to approve a policy through Blue Cross Blue Shield that will see premiums rise 18.6 percent. The rate is down from the village’s original quote, which saw premiums increase over 25 percent.

Holder acknowledged that the village has long enjoyed favorable rates on its premium, but even with the village having been able to reduce the premiums to 18.6 percent, trustees still wondered where the extra money would be coming from.

“We’re not happy with the result,” Holder said. “But that’s what we’re stuck with.”

Holder did say making some changes to the employee healthcare plan could reduce the premiums additionally, and the board would see only a 7.5 percent rise in costs if the plan was carried out. He said the village should approve the contract at the meeting that night and then work on reducing the costs, which would bring them in line with what the village has budgeted.

“There are many other providers,” suggested Trustee Tom Livingston when he asked about shopping around for other insurance providers.

Assistant Village Manager Adrianna Peterson said that other quotes had been solicited and that some were lower. However, due to the timing involved to compare the plans and see if they would be equivalent, the village would not have enough time.

Peterson estimated that it would take 90 days to review and finalize a plan to reduce the rate to a 7.5 percent increase in premiums.

The total cost would be about $98,000 if the village had to pay for the plan at the 18.6 percent rate throughout the year, Trustee Michael Horvath said.

Lou Cipparrone, the village’s finance director, said that the village was expecting some additional $60,000 in funding to come in from FEMA for expenses related to the blizzard last winter, and that could help provide some extra funding for the increased healthcare costs.

Trustee Mark Langan said that he would support the plan at the night’s meeting, but that the village should plan to re-evaluate who their provider is next year.