Charlton Switches Health Insurer, Freezing Employee Rates at Zero Percent for FY27

CHARLTON -- March 24, 2026, Charlton Select Board unanimously approves switch to new health insurer, introducing deductible for first time. The board voted 4-0 Tuesday night to accept the Insurance Advisory Committee's recommendation to move town employees from Hampshire Group to the Mass Strategic Health Group plan, a Harvard Pilgrim carrier, effective July 1, with $500 single and $1,000 family deductibles, holding the FY27 rate increase to zero percent. Finance Director Ashley Obrzut and NFP advisors Tara Fafford and Ken Lombardi told the board that Blue Cross and Harvard Pilgrim both declined to quote directly, and that MIIA's 13.5 percent increase proposal came with unfavorable rating conditions for Hampshire County migrants. The board also heard a pitch from former Recreation Commissioner Diane Doherty and Capen Hill Nature Sanctuary Director Barbara Fredericks to bring Danish troll sculptor Thomas Dambo to Charlton for 2027 or 2028, quoted at $180,000 to $350,000, with Member David Singer calling it potentially "more of an attraction than Treehouse or the Grizzly Adams Grave or anything else." Town Administrator Andrew Golas, who received a 4.79-out-of-5 annual review score, reported the town earned an SP-1+ short-term credit rating and maintained its AA+ bond rating from S&P Global ahead of permanent financing for the new fire substation.