The Lawrence County Commission is getting down to the wire on what insurance carrier it wants for county coverage in 2014.

On Tuesday, the county insurance committee met with the commissioners to review the policies of United Health, Central States and CEBCO. Now the commissioners are waiting for a recommendation from that committee before deciding what company to go with.

“We expect them to have a recommendation for us on Thursday,” Commission President Bill Pratt said. “That is important to let them make a recommendation.”

Originally this summer the commission thought it was expecting close to a million dollar increase in premiums because of a high claims ratio from 2013. However, that ratio began dropping later in the year.

Now United Health’s renewal is 18 percent higher than this year if it doesn’t implement a health reinvestment account or $812,960 more in premiums. With an HRA, the increase is only .6 percent over the current premium.

“That is a really good option,” Pratt said.

The HRA could be with deductibles of $2,500 and $3,500. With a reinvestment account, deductibles can be increased allowing for lower premiums but the county pays part of those deductibles so employees’ shares are not affected.

That United premium quote is if only 50 percent of the county’s employees had claims. Central States is only $30,000 less than United but does not have an HRA option.

Commissioners also looked at CEBCO, formed by the County Commission Association of Ohio, which would cost $600,000 more than United’s 2013 premium.

“Their costs are too high, even if the committee did recommend it we wouldn’t be able to accept that,” Pratt said.