The Greene County Supervisors recently approved how they would contribute funds to the County’s new Health Savings Account (HSA) through the new health insurance plans.

With the recent change in the County’s health insurance plans, a new addition is offering an option with an HSA. Employees who sign up for an HSA as a single will receive $1,000 from the County and those on the family plan will get $2,000. The Supervisors had to decide whether to contribute those funds upfront as one payment to start the next calendar year or spread it over the course of the year. Board Chair John Muir explained the benefit the County receives for offering an HSA.

“If people want to go on an HSA it’s less money that we (the Supervisors) have to come up with to match. That was the biggest thing that we thought, ‘You know there’s an interest in HSAs. People see a value in them.’ So we thought it was an option we want to put out there.”

The Board voted 3-2 in favor of paying the funds upfront. The two “no” votes were Muir and Vice-Chair Dawn Rudolph. Muir described why he voted against paying everything upfront.

“I thought there was enough of an incentive there. But I don’t have a problem with it. I mean it’s just a difference of how I thought it should be presented as a benefit. I very much think it’s a good thing for our insurance to have an option like that for everyone I believe.”

Another concern that was mentioned at Monday’s meeting was if an employee quits during the year, the County will not be able to recoup the money they contributed. However, the Board also thought that by contributing the funds upfront, it would incentivize more employees to sign up for an HSA. The deadline to sign up is by this Friday.