County set to see insurance rate increases in 2016
FORT KENT, Maine — County Commissioners approved the appointment of David Morin to serve on the Aroostook County Action Program board of directors during their regular meeting on Dec. 16, 2015. Morin’s term on the ACAP panel is for one year.
Morin, who is also on the Madawaska Board of Selectmen, will serve on the 21-member ACAP board as a public sector representative.
A bid was awarded to Pelletier Ford of Fort Kent and totals $82,095 for three Ford Explorers.
The new vehicles are expected to be delivered by end of February, Sheriff Darrell Crandall said via email, Thursday.
Approximately $3,000 per vehicle will be needed to outfit each one with the required law enforcement equipment and technology, according to Crandall.
“A lot of equipment is reused,” he said. “And there is getting to be more each year, which reduces costs.”
County Administrator Doug Beaulieu reported that health insurance rates for county employees would increase in January.
Premiums for the two “point of service” plans will each increase 3 percent and the “preferred provider” plan will increase 5 percent, according to Beaulieu. The increases will be for both the employees and the county.
These increases are very reasonable, Beaulieu told the commissioners, and “largely reflect that our experience being good, not bad.”
In the last three quarters, Aroostook County’s “loss ratio” was 62 percent, Beaulieu reported, which is very low. This is the difference between the ratios of premiums paid to the insurance provider and the claims settled by the company.
Also set to increase in 2016 are the rates paid by county employees into the Maine Public Employees Retirement System, according Beaulieu.
Employees currently pay 7.5 percent and the county pays 8.9 percent.
Effective July 1, 2016 the employee share will go up to 8 percent. The employer share will increase to 9.5 percent.
The employer rate actually went up to 9.5 percent earlier this year, which the county had not budgeted for, Beaulieu told the commissioners.
However, monies saved in the health insurance portion of the budget more than make up for this cost overrun, he said.
Commissioner Norm Fournier, who represents the county on the Maine County Commissioners Association’s Risk Pool, reported that the county’s 2016 rate would be increasing 1.59 percent, to $91,361.
All of the counties in Maine are self-insured through the pool, which provides property, casualty and liability insurance.
Fournier said that some counties are seeing increases as high as 3 percent.
The commissioners tabled a proposed $4,000 snow removal contract for the Shore Road in Sinclair. The state transferred ownership of the road to the county in 2014.
