Holton commission OKs health contract for city workers

The Holton City Commission kicked off 2022 by approving a health insurance contract with Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Kansas for city employees while tabling action on a life insurance policy for the year, pending further investigation.

Holton City Manager Kerwin McKee told commissioners that the health insurance contract amounted to a two-percent in crease over total health premiums charged to the city during 2021.

According to Holton City Clerk Teresa Riley, based on what the city paid Blue Cross in 2021, totaling $838,283.42, the 2022 total was estimated at $855,049.09, not including the life insurance portion.

The city pays about 85 percent of employees’ monthly premiums in order to keep its insurance policy “grandfathered in” under Affordable Care Act guidelines, with the remainder covered by employees, Riley said.

“I can only estimate what 2022’s total will be, because it depends on how many employees we have and what insurance they carry,” she added.

McKee said the two-percent increase in health insurance was less than the 15-percent increase originally predicted in the city’s 2022 budget, an amount factored into previous city budgets “because you never know what it’s going to be.”

That part of the BC/BS contract for 2022 received the commission’s unanimous approval, but a proposal to raise the life insurance contract — which the city covers in full for its employees — from a $20,000 life insurance plan to a $50,000 plan was questioned by Morris, who asked why the city was “just now confronted” with it.

For more on this and other stories, log in to your holtonrecorder.net account and select the Jan. 5, 2022 edition under “E-Editions.”