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Arapahoe County keeps 75/25 health cost split, accepts Kaiser rate deferral; approves dental plan enhancements
Summary
County commissioners agreed to take an 8.5% Kaiser rate deferral (smoothing higher renewal over future years), keep the 75/25 employer/employee cost share and approve dental plan enhancements funded from the dental reserve; board excluded two voluntary employee programs from approval pending more work.
Arapahoe County commissioners voted to adopt a benefits package that keeps the county’s 75% share of employee medical premiums and accepts an 8.5% Kaiser rate deferral designed to smooth a high 2026 renewal across later years. Commissioners also approved a package of dental plan enhancements to be paid from the county dental reserve and confirmed several related benefits decisions; they did not approve two voluntary programs pending further review.
Staff said the county faced a Kaiser medical renewal of about 19.2% for 2026, which would add roughly $5.6 million in plan cost; accepting an 8.5% negotiated deferral reduces the immediate 2026 impact and spreads the remainder over 2027–2029. Human Resources recommended taking the deferral and leaving the employer/employee cost split at 75/25 overall. HR estimated the county’s share of the plan would be about $24 million and employees’ share about $8 million under that option.
Commissioners were presented with an alternative that would have taken the full renewal and shifted more premium costs to employees (changing the county’s cost share from 75/25 to 73/27). Staff said that option would have produced substantially larger employee rate increases (examples shown to the board: employee-only increases measured in dozens of dollars biweekly; family plans would increase by hundreds annually) and would also change the county’s budget exposure.
On dental coverage, HR recommended using an existing dental reserve to fund modest enhancements — increasing annual maximums and lifetime orthodontia maximums — while holding rates steady for employees. Staff reported the dental reserve balance at roughly $105,000 (with a target reserve goal discussed during the presentation) and proposed using part of that reserve to pay the approximately $241,000 cost of enhancements to avoid immediate rate increases.
The board also confirmed no change to the county vision program (a multiyear rate guarantee in place) and approved a reauthorization of the well-being platform contract (a vendor increase of about 5% was accepted as part of the package). Commissioners explicitly withheld approval for two voluntary items that staff had presented for feedback — a payroll-linked small-loan product labeled “Cashable” and a proposed paid caregiver leave program — asking staff to return with more analysis.
The board’s approval came by informal thumbs-up consensus at the meeting; commissioners asked staff to include clearer employee education materials about plan choices (HMO v. PPO) ahead of open enrollment and to bring back details on longer-term contingency planning if medical trend remains high in future years.
The county’s HR team told commissioners they will open benefits enrollment in October under the normal schedule and will circulate plan and rate information to employees and to department budget leads as requested.
Ending: Commissioners directed staff to finalize vendor contracts and open enrollment materials under the approved approach, to continue negotiating plan terms with Kaiser where possible, and to bring any required fiscal adjustments into the next quarterly budget review if needed.
