County officials discuss plans for rising health care costs
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DOWNTOWN JACKSON — County officials discussed plans to deal with rising health care costs Thursday during a Madison County Insurance Committee meeting. Because of declining funds and rising costs, the county’s insurance fund has lost nearly $100,000 per month for the last two months, according to Madison County Commissioner Gary Deaton. He said he fears this is a sign of more to come. Deaton said nearly 1,400 people rely on the county’s insurance plan and that last month they had to increase individual and family deductibles by $1,000 and $1,500 respectively. Deaton said the committee is being proactive and trying to avoid a deficit in the fund. “Claims are going up, Obamacare is affecting it in a negative way, most aspects as far as the cost of health care is just going up,” Deaton said. “We have to accept that, and we have to pay our bills.” The prescription drug proposal will be presented to the full commission at next month’s meeting.
