The Greenup County Commissioners on Tuesday approved a motion to accept rates for county employee insurance premiums from United Healthcare.

They also approved passing the 3.8 percent premium increase between what their Humana plan had been, and what the new United plan would cost, to the county’s employees.

Even with a 3.8 percent increase, Judge Executive Bobby Carpenter explained, the switch to United was still a cheaper option than keeping Humana, who were increasing premiums again by over $150 per policy.

“I’d like to work it out to where we don’t hurt the employees,” Carpenter said, explaining that they didn’t want to pass on the full costs of recent insurance hikes to employees.

The new insurance plan does not pass on the full cost of the insurance raise over the last two years to employees, however.

The commissioners decided to continue paying the amount that the county chose to absorb during Humana’s last rate hike, rather than pass the full cost of recent insurance hikes on to employees via their contributions to the plan. Passing the full cost on would result in a rate increase of around 20 percent.

In other action, the county moved to pay bills where funds were available, to accept $176,839 from County Clerk Pat Heineman, and to table discussion on the distribution of property taxes at East Park until after a special meeting to determine the actual amounts that are owed.

They also moved to approve a grant application request from Greenup County EMS, approved a motion to hire two new full time 911 dispatchers, approved a motion to enter into an agreement with Lewis County to administer their 911 IT and mapping services, and approved the purchase of two Mac trucks for the roads department at a cost of $137,904 each.

Finally, the commissioners issued proclamations congratulating the Greenup County High School cheerleaders for winning first place in their class at the national cheerleading championships and to the junior Pride Athletics team for placing second in their club category.