Aldermen have special call meeting to discuss insurance surcharge
The Mayor and Board of Aldermen held a special call meeting on Tuesday, November 30 to discuss the consideration of amending the resolution passed in early September that requires city employees who are unvaccinated against COVID-19 to pay an insurance surcharge of $75. The amendment adds language that allows for alternatives to the surcharge.
At the last Alderman meeting on Tuesday, November 16, Ward 1 Alderman Ben Carver brought forth the idea to amend the insurance surcharge the was set to take effect on December 1. However, the Board voted to postpone that charge until February in a vote motioned by Ward 3 Alderman Jeffrey Rupp and seconded by Ward 2 Alderman Sandra Sistrunk.
Later though, Mayor Lynn Spruill vetoed the postponement of the start of the surcharge, which would mean without further action unvaccinated city employees will have to begin paying the insurance surcharge today, December 1.
On Saturday over the Thanksgiving holiday, city attorney Chris Latimer spoke with Mayor Spruill and Chief Operating Officer of the City of Starkville’s Human Resource Department, Navarrete Ashford, who noted there was some cause for concern when it came to the proposed weekly testing alternative.
“We left off with a weekly testing option being on the table, but the special call clearly said look for another alternative within the law. In talking about it with the mayor and Mr. Ashford on Saturday over the Thanksgiving holidays, we all talked about whether the weekly testing option would be practically workable,” Latimer said. “Mr. Ashford raised four concerns. He was clear that he can and will do anything the Board wants, these were just challenges he foresaw.”
The first challenge was reporting. Individual reporting to HR every week could be a burdensome mass of emails.
The second was of department heads were in charge of reporting, it could be detrimental to the heads who might be too busy or indisposed for the day the email is supposed to be sent. Latimer gave the example of Starkville Fire Department Chief Charles Yarbrough being at a fire.
The third was how available testing would be for people who are non-symptomatic. Testing could potentially make an employee miss work.
The final concern was the cost for weekly tests.
“It takes a lot of participation in an insurance plan to make it desirable for the community. Doctors don’t like to take it, hospitals don’t like to take it; it’s a lot of lot of work for them for it to serve a very small population,” Duke said.
Duke bragged that one good thing about the traditional Medicare card you can get when you turn 65 is that you can basically go anywhere.
“I don’t know a doctor in Starkville, Columbus, Memphis, or anywhere who does not take Medicare. Everybody takes Medicare, because if you think about the number of people who have Medicare benefits, that’s basically everybody,” said Duke. “But on the other side, you go and look at the Medicare Advantage plan, and basically none of the doctors will take it. You may be able to go to two doctors in Starkville and maybe one in Maben. So just because you choose to take Medicare Advantage, it has to be good for you and it has to work for you.”
Duke described the Medicare Advantage plan as not one that is necessarily bad, but one that is different. Within the Medicare Advantage plan, there are two subplans in it, an PPO and an HMO.
“PPO is a very large network and HMO is a small network. The other differences are if you go to a PPO, you have in-network and outof-network
people, and lots of doctors could take it,” said Duke. “If you go with HMO, you only have a few doctors that will take it, and if you go out of network, they don’t pay. They have really good prices on those plans, but the networks are very small.”
For more information on the SHIP program and Medicare Advantage, you can contact the Golden Triangle Planning and Development District at (662) 324-7860.