The Greene County Supervisors recently approved the renewal of the county’s health insurance plan for next calendar year.

The Supervisors chose to stay with their current carrier, Cypress, with an overall rate increase of 23-percent. However, there is one slight change the Board made to their coverage and that is increasing the employee deductible plans. The County is no longer offering a $500 deductible plan, but will offer a $1,000 and $1,500 plans. Supervisor Chair John Muir explains why the Board felt they had to change the plans.

“I think the biggest goal we had in mind was cost. Somehow we needed to look at some things that the employees and us could work together to try and lower the cost of insurance like everybody’s trying to do in this insurance environment we’re in. And that was one of the things that we felt like we could do and hopefully lower some of the costs for the county.”

The Board decided to stay with Cypress, due some other carriers being higher in rates, while those that weren’t higher didn’t provide as much coverage as what the County is already receiving.