“Health Insurance is going to eat us alive”

Fannin County Schools face one million dollars in health insurance increases, Superintendent Mark Henson told the board of education this week. The superintendent made the announcement at this Tuesday’s work session, saying that he received the information the previous night. Sent from the Georgia Department of Community Health, the information was a notification of new mandated health increases, dictated by the Patient Protection and Affordable Health Care Act (Obamacare). Health costs have incrementally increased since the passage of the bill. However, the latest round on increases caught Henson and the rest of the Fannin Board by surprise.

“We’ve been hearing roughly about a million dollar health care increase fir our certified portion of the employer portion of health care,”

Henson explained,

“That’s something we didn’t see coming.”

According to the information from the Department of Community Health, rates have increased since December 2010, when rates rose from $162 per month to $218 and in May 2011 the cost went up to $246. And then, last September rates increased again to $296 per month. Now, in July 2012 the cost will go up again to $446 and in July 2014 costs skyrocket to $746 per month per enrolled member. Fannin County currently has 208 non-certified employees. These prices account only for the employer’s portion.

During the Board’s Thursday night’s meeting, Henson explained the gravity of the situation. He said, although Fannin’s financial situation is healthier than other districts,

“We can’t continue on the path we’re continuing.”

Putting the increases in context, Henson said that economy is not expected to be much better in 2013 that it was in 2012, the state is not sending more money and that he expects a 2 to 10 percent cut in non-categorical funding.

“Health Insurance is going to eat us alive,”

he said, adding that the district will have to look at other options. When asked what some of these options may be, Henson only said that he was talking to County Attorney Lynn Doss and mused the possibility of a regional co-op to assist cover the costs. In the end, though, Henson said that it was too early to tell.