{"id":1910,"date":"2019-08-30T11:28:58","date_gmt":"2019-08-30T18:28:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.piercecountywa.gov\/executive\/?p=1910"},"modified":"2023-06-26T13:34:55","modified_gmt":"2023-06-26T20:34:55","slug":"youre-going-to-need-a-bigger-boat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.piercecountywa.gov\/executive\/2019\/08\/30\/youre-going-to-need-a-bigger-boat\/","title":{"rendered":"You’re going to need a bigger boat"},"content":{"rendered":"

As I\u2019ve mentioned in this blog many times, I\u2019m a boat guy. I love being on the water.\u00a0 Whether as a kid sailing with my family, during my time in the Navy, or in the San Juan Islands with my family this summer.\u00a0 While I believe any day on the water is better than any day on land, I also have a serious respect for the sea \u2013 including the waters of Puget Sound.\u00a0 The key to a safe and successful voyage is to always have the right sized boat for the trip \u2013 especially when you confront a storm.<\/p>\n

Recently, my wife Lauren and I, along with Bosco, were out on Eld Inlet in a 10-foot rowboat when the wind picked up \u2013 a little over 10 knots.\u00a0 This wind, running across the inlet, caused sharp one-foot waves.\u00a0 Rowing the boat became more challenging and we nearly took water over our transom. Our little dinghy was not the right boat for the conditions.<\/p>\n

One the largest storms any of us can encounter is a health-related crisis.\u00a0 When you or a loved one are seriously ill, nothing matters except getting better. Additionally, we all have friends or family that faced an unexpected diagnosis that, save for medical insurance, would have wiped out a person\u2019s finances.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s why I feel an obligation to our employees to have a healthcare benefit program that will help them weather the storms that come. \u00a0The County, too, must anticipate potential clouds on our financial horizon and safeguard the resources provided to us by taxpayers.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve been concerned about the sustainability of our self-insured plan since I arrived at the County.\u00a0 We\u2019ve been analyzing ways to ensure employees have a plan that handles any conditions for quite a while.\u00a0 Simply put, our self-insured plan \u201cboat\u201d just isn\u2019t big enough.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s why I have submitted a proposal to the Council for their approval to transition from our current plan to the stronger and more stable state plan, offered to local governments by the Public Employees Benefit Board, or PEBB<\/a>.\u00a0 To be clear, this proposal only affects those covered by the County\u2019s self-insurance plans, which is less than half of our employees.<\/p>\n

PEBB currently has almost 400,000 public employees enrolled in their plans (That\u2019s a big boat!).\u00a0 That size gives them significant buying power in the healthcare market.\u00a0 About 35,000 of them currently reside in Pierce County, so there are well-developed healthcare networks in our region.<\/p>\n

There are several reasons to make this switch, with many benefits for employees:<\/p>\n