Habersham’s proposed health-plan renewal would shift part of increase to county workers

Habersham County commissioners were asked May 18 to accept a proposed 2026–27 employee insurance package that would renew the county health plan with HealthEZ, ISU and VeracityRx and divide a projected $244,400 annual increase equally between the county and employees. The proposal put the plan’s gross annual cost at $6,898,411, but the agenda material does not show whether commissioners approved it.

The decision reaches beyond an insurance contract: it concerns a major county operating cost and the amounts workers could pay through payroll deductions. Under the staff and insurance-broker recommendation, the county and employees would each absorb half of the projected increase, an approach intended to limit the county’s added expense while raising employee contributions. The proposed total is a gross cost, not a confirmed final county expenditure.

The renewal first appeared in agenda material as a proposed continuation of the county’s health plan with the three vendors, projected to raise gross annual costs 3.7 percent. The underlying date for that initial proposal is not stated in the agenda material. By May 18, the proposal had been framed more specifically around the $244,400 projected increase and a 50-50 cost-sharing arrangement between the county and employees.

County staff and the county’s insurance broker recommended the shared-increase approach for commissioners’ consideration. For county government, the proposal would spread the additional cost rather than place it entirely on the budget. For employees, the same approach could mean higher premium contributions. The agenda item identifies those competing financial effects but does not include recorded comments from employees, commissioners or the vendors on the proposal.

Several figures in the proposal require distinction. The $6,898,411 amount is a projected gross annual health-plan cost, excluding roughly $701,000 in employee premiums and an estimated $179,000 in annual prescription-drug rebates. Dental, vision, life, disability and supplemental benefits were listed as rate-guaranteed, with no proposed benefit or cost changes. None of those proposed terms is established as effective because the material does not document commission action.

The next public step is the release of County Commission minutes or another official action record showing whether Habersham accepted the 2026–27 renewal, revised the cost-sharing terms or chose another option. Until then, the package’s implementation, the final employee premium contributions and the county’s final obligation remain undecided.