Health insurer to drop state employees

Thousands of state employees and their family members across a large swath of west-central Wisconsin will have to find a new health insurance provider next year. Beginning in January, Group Health Cooperative of Eau Claire no longer will provide health insurance to state employees in several west-central Wisconsin counties — including Eau Claire — said Pete Farrow, the cooperative's CEO and general manager. State workers and their families in those counties who get insurance through Group Health Cooperative of Eau Claire — about 10,000 people, Farrow said — will have to find a new provider. (EAU CLAIRE LEADER TELEGRAM, 8/31)