Fewer than 20 full-time Lake County employees have applied for an early retirement package despite the northwest Indiana county's threat to eliminate 150 full-time government jobs by the end of the year.

The county insurance coordinator, Diane Young, says some employees who are in their 80s have told her they can't afford to retire.

County Council President Larry Blanchard says the early retirement program is an effort to reduce county health care costs amid state-mandated property tax caps and declining revenues because of the recession.