The Cost of Medical Care for County Electeds

Teri Sforza of the OC Watchdog Blog has an interesting story this morning on the Health Care benefit costs for 9 of 12 elected County officials.

Wading into the nasty crossfire between county workers and managers (as budget black holes threaten to swallow us all), we’ve already told you that:

So we at OC Watchdog were curious about exactly how much the county was paying per elected official, and how many dependents each one had.

We received a rather stuffy response from Assistant County CEO Rob Richardson, saying that they don’t have to tell us. Disclosing specifics could broadcast information about people’s medical conditions far and wide, and that sort of information is private, he argued. (You can read Richardson’s letter by clicking county-response.)

Before we could argue, the county took an extra step, asking the dozen elected officials if they’d be willing to waive their privacy rights and disclose the requested information. Nine of them said yes, showing that health benefits range from $15,603 for electeds with two or more dependents, to $6,421 for a lone elected.

The three who declined were:

  • District Attorney Tony Rackauckas
  • Auditor-Controller David Sundstrom
  • Assessor Webster J. Guillory

 Thanks to nine electeds for their candor: Read the rest of Teri’s story here.

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