HOUGHTON – The Houghton County Board is is looking at options for reducing its health care costs.

The board approved giving Administrator Eric Forsberg authority to force payment under Public Act 152 if unions do not approve changing the health care plan. The law limits the amount public employers are required to pay toward health care plans.

“Anyone who wants to take our core plan gets their health insurance for free,” he said. “What this is saying is the max the county’s going to pay is 87 percent, if the unions don’t agree to this.”

Rates for the county are set to increase by 25.1 percent on Jan. 1, 2017, Forsberg said at Tuesday’s board meeting. Due to the way the county pays for its plan, it actually translates to a 26.6 percent increase, Forsberg said.

The increase came due to employees’ increased health care use. Costs submitted to Blue Cross increased from $759,000 two years ago to $1.3 million last year.

The county had budgeted for a 10 percent increase.

“This increase of 26 percent will actually cost us $120,000 more for health insurance than budgeted,” he said.

To make up the cost, Forsberg said, the county would have to charge singles $97 more per month, two-person plans $228 more per month and families $286 more per month.

Provider 44 North has given the county an option to limit the increase to 11.25 percent. That would involve switching its deductible from $2,500 for single people and $5,000 for families to $5,000/$10,000. Employees have been insured for $250/$500, with the difference paid for by an Retirement Health Reimbursement Account.

“The premium drop is so much that we actually save money based on our usage, and they can track our usage and give us an estimate what our usage will be,” he said.

44 North would also make the county to switch from a Community Blue Plan to a Simply Blue plan. The biggest difference is emergency room co-pays, Forsberg said.

Under the current plan, people who go to emergency rooms for something that is not an accident or who are not admitted have a $275 co-pay. Under the Simply Blue plan, people would also pay the deductible for accidents, which Forsberg said is “unacceptable.”

“We met with the unions to discuss this,” he said. “I said we will throw that emergency room thing into the HRA, where the county would pick that up.”

The change requires approval by county unions. Forsberg said he had sought quotes from two other companies, who did not provide bids.

Commissioner Scott Ala suggested a survey of local employers to see how they are coping with insurance increases. However, Chairman Al Koskela said other businesses or government units might have different experiences due to different levels of use.