Carbon County and Teamsters Local Union No. 773 have reached an agreement.

On Thursday, the county commissioners voted to approve an agreement with the union, effective Jan. 1, 2016, through Dec. 31, 2018. Thirty-six full-time and four part-time corrections officers at the prison make up the union.Under the new agreement, the officers will receive a 3 percent raise annually.They will also see a $5 annual increase per pay in employee health insurance premium copays and an annual $3 increase in out-of-pocket prescription costs.Under the last contract, the union employees paid $23.50 a pay for themselves for health insurance premiums; $33.50 with a spouse or a child; and $43.50 for family coverage.The commissioners took this time to also talk about the rising county health care costs as a whole.It costs the county $5.1 million annually for health care coverage for the 270 full-time employees who run the departments.This represents an 8 percent increase from last year.Commissioner William O'Gurek said the insurance costs Carbon pays for a single person is $10,722 and the employee is responsible for contributing $741.For an employee and spouse, it costs $21,688 and the employee pays $1,001; for an employee and child, $20,421 and the employee pays $1,261; and for family coverage, $29,484, with the employee contributing $1,261."Those are enormous numbers," O'Gurek said.He said these totals aren't reflected in the employee salaries, which as a whole represent a $12.7 million line item in this year's budget.O'Gurek suggested to his colleagues that maybe they should provide a summary of benefits to show what an employee gets in their benefit packages.Commissioners' Chairman Wayne Nothstein said that compared to private sector jobs, the county benefits package is very good.Full-time Carbon County employees also receive vacation, personal and sick time; a $25,000 life insurance policy and employer contributions toward their retirement.But Nothstein voiced his concerns about the future of the health care coverage if the proposed Cadillac tax comes to fruition.The Cadillac tax is part of the Affordable Care Act that would charge an annual 40 percent excise tax on high-cost employer-sponsored health plans.Right now, it is slated to take effect in 2020."That will cost the county huge amounts of money," Nothstein said, adding that medical costs have skyrocketed.