Fayetteville sticks with health care plan

FAYETTEVILLE — The city will keep its health insurance plan for employees with a higher cost but lower maximum out-of-pocket expense.

The City Council unanimously supported keeping the plan at the request of employees who overwhelmingly spoke in favor of it through public comment, phone calls and email. A new plan was on the table that could have saved the city about $650,000 in premium costs and health savings account contributions. The proposed plan also could have saved employees about $111,000 collectively in premium costs next year.

The choice council members had to make was whether to stick with the city’s current health care plan at a 6% increase to the city and employees, or go with a new plan. The new plan proposed lower monthly costs but a higher out- of- pocket cost, particularly for families.

Total annual cost to the city to stick with the current plan is just more than $6 million. The proposed plan had an annual cost of more than $5.4 million. Both plans are under Arkansas Blue Cross Blue Shield but structured differently.

Employees who spoke at a special meeting Tuesday said they understood staying with the plan would cost more but would sacrifice the peace of mind a lower out-of-pocket expense brings.

Missy Cole, Human Resources director, presented a slide showing the difference. A one-year snapshot of annual maximum exposure for an individual on the current plan would be $2,781. For the city’s current family plan, it would be $6,143.

Under the proposed plan, the maximum one-year exposure would have been $5,301 for an individual and $11,088 for a family.

Cody Ashworth, a city employee, said the changes in the new plan would have been monumental. The city’s health savings account contribution wouldn’t have been enough to cover the maximum out-ofpocket cost, he said.

Representatives of the city’s police and fire unions said they polled their members and the vote overwhelmingly was in favor of keeping the current plan.

Council members who spoke said they wanted to support city staff. Each said they had received much correspondence from employees in favor of keeping their plan.

“Because of their input, and although it will cost the city some extra money, I think it’s really important we retain our good employees,” Council Member Teresa Turk said.

Council Member Sarah

Bunch said she would support the wishes of employees but worried the council was kicking the can down the road and will face a similar situation next year with the rising cost of the plan.

“I don’t know that we can always cut out of the budget every year to take care of it,” she said.

Chief Financial Officer Paul Becker said the administration is still working on the budget for next year. The proposed plan could have helped provide extra money for anticipated increased costs such as maintenance at city facilities, utilities, fuel and personnel, he said.

Mayor Lioneld Jordan said his administration would find a way to make appropriate cuts to the budget to present to the council in November.

“It may not suit everybody, but I can handle that end of it,” he said.