Swampscott health insurance premiums won’t go up in FY’09

SWAMPSCOTT – Health insurance premiums for the town will not increase for the upcoming fiscal year.A hefty increase in health insurance premiums for FY’09 is something the town had braced itself for after Town Administrator Andrew Maylor’s budget forecast indicated he expected health insurance premium rates to rise.Maylor said the town paid more than $4.3 million for health insurance premiums this fiscal year and in his FY’09 budget he factored in a 12.5 percent rate increase for health insurance.Maylor said in mid-January he received notification from the insurance agent informing him the town could receive a rate increase of up to 9.2 percent and he lowered the estimate in his budget to reflect the possible 9.2 percent increase.This week Maylor said he was told there would not be an increase in insurance premiums for the town in FY’09, which would save the town approximately $400,000 in the next fiscal year, but would be paying approximately $20,000 more in health insurance costs for retirees.”That means we have $380,000 more available than we thought we were going to have,” he said.Maylor said he is giving the School Department $220,000 and the balance would go into various reserve accounts.”We did not allocate any of the balance to the town (non-school) side,” he said. “The concern is if we put it all back in the budget then we won’t have reserves for next year. The big question is whether the trend will be sustained in the future and we just don’t know.”Maylor said he does not have a detailed explanation as to why premiums are not increasing but he is certain legislation allowing municipalities to buy health insurance through the GIC had an impact on the market.”The GIC opens up competition in the market,” he said.