Paid Leave Oregon for Lane County Employees in 2023

The Lane County Board of County Commissioners met early on Tuesday, Nov. 8 to approve a life and disability insurance contract for all Lane County employees and establish an equivalent plan for Paid Leave Oregon (PLO) Insurance. The vote was drawn on ideological lines, with the insurance contract being awarded to the Standard for three years, as well as allowing PLO to be filed through the state-administered program.

The current contract life, disability and leave administration insurance programs are with The Hartford, a Connecticut-based company, which is set to expire in May 2023. A committee of Human Resources workers consisting of Krystal Tullar and Alana Holmes unanimously recommended the Standard, a Portland-based insurance company as the best option for Lane County employees.

Tullar and Holmes spent 30 minutes fielding questions from the board, breaking down what other nearby counties like Jackson and Clackamas are choosing to go with, as well as explaining that the deadline to sign a contract with the Standard is on May 1, 2023.

For establishing a PLO benefit plan, the decision was between choosing an independent, third-party insurance company for employees to file PLO with or allowing employees to file through the state-administered program. The state-administered program became effective in Sept. 2019 with Oregon House Bill (HB) 2005 creating a family and medical leave insurance program to compensate for time away from work.

Vice-Chair Commissioner Laurie Trieger argued that they should refrain from getting involved with private-insurance companies as their main concern is not health but instead its profit margins. “What’s really frustrating and a shame is we are the last developed nation in the world to not have a national program to take care of people,” Treigeler says, “The fundamental issue is the concern of the privatization and the profiting off of human suffering and people in their worst moments and that is a fundamentally different motivation to provide a service whether you’re doing it as a public service or you are a company with folks who benefit financially.”

Commissioner Jay Bozievich argued against this, saying that with a private insurance company they will see more immediate results, as they do not completely understand the flaws with Oregon state’s system, and that he has very little faith in the state to properly implement the program. “There is a huge risk going [with the state plan], that risk being our employee’s ability to access their benefits.” Bozievich then went on to say that these Commissioners voting in favor of the state program are being driven by ideological issues and are not necessarily looking for the best customer service for our employees. 

Chair Commissioner Pat Farr concurred saying, “I’m not convinced the state will provide the best service. I count 19 Lane County government employees in the room. We are entitled to first-rate service.”

After around 20 minutes of debate, the motion put forward by Commissioner Heather Buch passed 3-2, with Farr and Bozievich being in opposition, both stating that they feel the State option is inappropriate for all Lane County employees at this time.