Ketchikan’s Borough Assembly is scheduled to tackle the growing deficit in a key health insurance fund in a work session on Monday. Since 2019, Ketchikan’s school district has paid out more in insurance claims than it’s received in premiums. As of the end of last month, the school district owed $4 million to the borough for unpaid health expenses. Ketchikan’s borough and school district don’t have a traditional insurance provider. They’re self-insured, meaning the borough takes in monthly employee premiums and pays out the cost of things like doctor visits and hospital stays. A type of backup insurance, known as reinsurance, protects it from runaway expenses. As it stands, Ketchikan’s borough pays out claims for school district employees and bills the school district for reimbursement. But in a memo to Ketchikan’s Borough Assembly, the borough’s finance director says the district hasn’t paid enough to cover the costs, leaving the borough to make up the difference. "Per a long-standing MOA between the Borough and District, both entities are required to transfer the monthly premiums (employee and employer) to the respective funds sufficient to cover claims as they accrue. This has not occurred and the chronic and growing deficit in the school district fund is the result of this underfunding,” Finance Director Charlanne Thomas wrote. Read more