Tribal workers insurance costs going up

Posted by Christopher S. Pineo | Dec 14, 2017 | News |

WINDOW ROCK

The insurance cost for Navajo employees is going up and some coverage is going down.

Claim costs had exceeded the budget for the employee benefits plan in recent years, and a 38 percent increase to monthly premiums is set for 2018 to catch up.

For employees with a deduction of $122 a month, a 38 percent increase would drive the monthly deduction from pay up by $46.36 to a monthly deduction of $168.36.
Deductibles will also go up. According to documents from a prior meeting, a single person’s annual medical deductible will go from $250 to $400 and a family’s will go from $500 to $800. The medical out-of-pocket maximum for singles will go up to $4,000 from $2,500, and for families will go up to $8,000 from $5,000.

A memo to members of the Navajo Nation Employee Benefit Plan announced that contribution rates were going up, and representatives of Navajo Nation enterprises impacted by the hike got some answers as to why at a Navajo Nation Insurance Commission meeting last Friday in Window Rock.

Material distributed before the meeting showed a jolt in costs for 2016 and 2017 that caused a deficit of $4.5 million. The program, managed by Hawaii Mainland Administrators, has approval currently for $1 million in supplemental funds from the Undesignated/Unreserved Fund Balance with $3.5 million still sought for the plan.

Arita Yazzie, a legal advisor from the Department of Justice for the insurance commission, pointed to changes in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare, from 2010 and changes in 2011 and 2014 drove up costs by raising the amount of specific types of coverage required for individuals. She said some of these had no maximum cap, so the costs impacted the plan in a way that couldn’t be anticipated.