Brookfield town and school leaders are outraged over the projected skyrocketing costs of health insurance for their employees; medical insurance costs are a key part of the benefit packefit.
In the current budget, the town spends about $1.8 million on health insurance, and the schools spend about $6.7 million. When the budget process started, the town and school health consultant estimated that rates could jump as much as 20 percent this year. The rate is now at about 14.5 percent, but school and town leaders think they can get much better rates if they seek competitors through a request for proposal process.
In addition, the town and schools will also be considering a return to self-insurance, or even a proposal to link with the Bethel school district to try and get a better bulk rate.
On Monday night, the Board of Selectmen approved spending their half of a $25,000 expense to draft the proposals that could save the town and school district hundreds of thousands of dollars in cost.