Clark County Board Approves United Healthcare Plans for Employees

Clark County Board | August 21, 2026

Article Summary: The Clark County Board on Friday, Aug. 21, 2026, approved employee health insurance with United Healthcare, offering two plans from which employees may choose. The item was taken up first because of time constraints, with Board Member Brandon Burkybile joining by phone to explain the proposal.

Clark County Employee Health Insurance Key Points:

The board approved United Healthcare with two plans, for which employees will have a choice.

The item was moved to the front of New Business due to time constraints.

Burkybile, recorded absent at roll call, was present by phone to explain what was proposed in talks with a consulting firm.

The minutes record no premium figures, no plan details, no effective date and no name for the consulting firm.

CLARK COUNTY — The Clark County Board on Friday, Aug. 21, 2026, approved employee health insurance with United Healthcare under an arrangement offering two plans from which county employees will be able to choose.

The item was listed last among the seven New Business items on the posted agenda but was taken up first. “Due to time constraints, this agenda item was moved for discussion first,” the minutes state.

Board Member Brandon Burkybile, who was recorded absent at the 8:00 a.m. roll call, was present by phone to explain to the board what was proposed in talks with the consulting firm, according to the minutes. The firm is not named anywhere in the record, and the minutes do not say who engaged it, what it was asked to do, or what alternatives it presented.

Board Member Mike Parsons moved approval of United Healthcare with two plans for which employees will have a choice, and Board Member Susan Guinnip seconded. The chairman put the question and, upon the roll being taken, all members present voted “aye,” whereupon Chairman Rex Goble declared the motion adopted. The minutes do not list individual members’ votes.

Terms Not in the Record

For a decision touching every county employee and the county’s own budget, the Aug. 21 record is notably thin. The minutes contain no premium figures, no employer and employee cost shares, no deductibles, no description of how the two plans differ, no effective date, no contract term, and no comparison to the county’s current coverage. They do not identify the county’s previous carrier or say whether the change is a renewal or a switch.

Nor is there a vote on a dollar amount. The board separately approved general claims, highway claims, preceding bills, and one-day and mileage claims during the meeting, all unanimously among members present and all without a total appearing in the minutes.

Health insurance was one of three employee-related matters before the board. The posted agenda listed a closed session under 5 ILCS 120/2(c)(1), covering the appointment, employment, compensation, discipline and performance of specific employees, and 5 ILCS 120/2(c)(2), covering collective negotiating matters; the board entered that session at 9:12 a.m. and returned to open session at 10:19 a.m. Immediately afterward it approved a modification of highway employee compensation pending union approval. The minutes do not connect the closed session to the insurance decision, which was voted before the board went behind closed doors.

The board also approved the 2027 holiday schedule, another employee-facing item, on a motion by Parsons seconded by Guinnip.

The county board’s next session is Sept. 17, 2026, at 8:00 a.m. for budget hearings — the point at which the cost of the insurance decision would ordinarily surface in the county’s own numbers.