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Tamworth administrator recommends switching town health coverage to Baldwin Group PFA; board approves $10,000 life-insurance benefit
Summary
Town Administrator presented 2026 health-plan options showing a 9% HealthTrust increase; she recommended a Baldwin Group PFA (partially self-funded) plan as a lower-cost alternative and proposed an employer-paid group life-insurance policy; the board voted to add $10,000 of employer-paid life insurance costing about $20/month.
Town Administrator presented updated 2026 health-insurance rates and proposed alternatives after reviewing HealthTrust renewals and a broker offer from the Baldwin Group. She reported a HealthTrust premium increase of about 9% and described a Baldwin Group PFA (participating funding arrangement) option that would reduce the towns premium costs by using a partially self-funded structure and a higher deductible, with an estimated portion of $51,533 applied toward member deductibles under the Baldwin proposal.
Administrator said the Baldwin plan would reduce the towns overall premium outlay and simplify administration compared with the HealthTrust arrangement; she noted concerns about the stability and oversight of larger New Hampshire risk pools and referenced recent insolvency and assessment issues reported for other local pools.
As part of the benefits discussion, the Baldwin Group offered employer-paid group term life insurance for full-time employees. The administrator presented two options: $10,000 coverage for about $20/month or $20,000 coverage for about $40/month; the board discussed and then moved to adopt the $10,000 employer-paid life-insurance plan. A motion to add the life-insurance coverage at the $20-per-month level passed on a roll-call vote (tally recorded as 3 yes, 0 no).
The board asked the administrator to hold an employee education session to explain the insurance change if the Baldwin proposal proceeds. No final contract was executed at the meeting; the administrator said she would proceed with employee outreach and bring final documents and enrollment steps to the board for approval.
