Central Huron Ambulance board approves employee health insurance – Huron Daily Tribune

Central Huron Ambulance is hoping to be able to attract more employees by offering something that has been discussed the better part of four years — health insurance. 

The 11 present voting members approved providing health insurance, medical and dental, for Central Huron’s employees at their January meeting.

Board member Kevin Richardson said previously the board was considering offering these benefits to help attract and retain employees, with Board President Mike Smalley adding Central Huron wants to be an attractive employer.

“It’s hard to do without benefits these days,” Smalley said.

The average EMT working for Central Huron makes $13 an hour.

Tim Zurek, the director of Central Huron, previously said the pay offered is not ideal for raising a family and worker shortages have caused as few as two EMT’s to be on call at times.

The insurance will also be looked every 12 months to consider what the prices are, what the services provided are doing for Central Huron revenue, and if deductibles have to be increased at all.

Zurek said that if a spouse of a Central Huron employee has health insurance offered from their employer, they have to get it through them, not Central Huron.

“We’re just making sure we’re not paying more than we need to,” Zurek said.

During their meeting, board member Dianne Maschke brought up the suggestion of doubling the subsidy the service received from each municipality it covers, from $5 per person to $10 per person. Her reasoning was that since 1996, the subsidy Central Huron receives from its coverage area has gone up only once, from $3 to $5, and that people are understanding how important ambulance services are.

The subsidy that comes from each municipality is a certain amount for each person living there, with Richardson previously saying that $5 subsidies for each person in Central Huron’s coverage area only amounts to 4% of its budget.

The proposal was passed by a 6-5 vote. It is expected to bring in an additional $83,000 to Central Huron once it collects bill payments from the 13 municipalities it serves in April.

Smalley was against approving the measure at the meeting, as he wanted the members to bring it up to their respective municipalities to get their input first. Other board members who voted no felt the same way.

Maschke mentioned that the Port Austin Village Council would be willing to pay more for the ambulance service, with other board members feeling the same way.

Smalley said that as a result of this decision, Zurek cannot hire whoever he wants. He needs to come to the board first to explain why he needs more employees, given that they are more of a financial liability.

The 12 employees eligible would have a 20% co-pay having them cover $1,459.91 total of their insurance per month, which would come out of their paychecks. Central Huron would get a monthly bill of $5,839.62 covering the rest of the monthly medical premium.

The insurance is provided by Blue Cross through Haley Ward & Associates of Bad Axe. The plans are effective starting Feb. 1.

Smalley said this was something the board has talked about doing for the past four years, even before he joined the board, but was unable to due to financial reasons and fears the COVID-19 pandemic would limit their funding for a time.

“We want to make sure its sustainable, not just be for 12 months and cannot do it anymore,” Smalley said.

He said that if the board did not approve this now and waited another month, it could subject to price increases.