Quincy City Council to vote on employee health insurance plan

QUINCY (WGEM) - The Quincy City Council will vote Monday on health insurance plans for the balance of this calendar year.

This follows a 2-hour special meeting Wednesday night with the city’s insurance consultant.

Mayor Mike Troup said his first priority was to explain why the city went from a self-insurance fund when he first took office, to the plan it has today.

The mayor said he realized the city had a problem paying for employee health insurance when he first took office.

“There’s been no money in my first-year budget to put into the self-insurance fund,” Mayor Troup said. “The money that we have to pay claims was showing that it was going to be inadequate. We said, ‘Okay, we’ve got to do something about this.’”

Mayor Troup said he, the city’s comptroller and council worked together to fix the problem, hiring a consultant to come up with more affordable plans that might work.

“We went to a fully insured plan in the first fiscal year,” Mayor Troup said. “That saved almost a million dollars from the previous year.”

However, that change also came with some hiccups surrounding health care coverage.

Quincy city comptroller Sheri Ray said she understands the frustration.

“We’re sharing in this together,” Ray said. “It’s not us versus them. It’s we’re all experiencing the same thing. About 70% of healthcare costs are paid for by the employer. Employees are only paying a small piece of it. While it’s painful, I’m a parent who covers family. I’ve had family coverage. I understand and see the city side of it, too.”

“We know from the city administration side, the next most important thing to a paycheck from an employer is the benefits,” Troup said. “Every employee counts on our benefits, especially health insurance. We know this is a big issue, and we’re working to correct the problems and get things implemented and operating as smooth as they can.”

Since Monday night’s vote will be a resolution, it only requires one reading before a vote.

City attorneys are in the process of drafting a resolution.

It’s expected to be finished by Friday afternoon.

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