County board votes to streamline retiree Medicare plans
The Marquette County Board of Commissioners voted to streamline its Medicare packages for about 150 of its retired employees Tuesday night.
Currently, retired employees were divided into two Medicare plans, one with about 25 members and another with over 100. Under a new agreement, all retirees will be lumped into one plan. Combining the plans will save the county about $30,000 a year.
“One of the things I think we have to do as a board is try to do is to one, get everything uniform across the board relative to the retiree situation,” Marquette County Board Commissioner Greg Seppanen said. “As I understand it, now there is a lot of variances in regards to what we’re looking at towards the retiree healthcare plans, so it’s critical for us to manage this and in the future by trying to standardize what’s out there.”
The board also approved a five-county Michigan State Housing Development Authority grant that will demolish eleven blighted homes in the Upper Peninsula, including three in Marquette County.