During Thursday’s Indianola Board of Aldermen meeting, the lawmakers again discussed how to deal with the increase in employee health insurance costs levied by the city’s carrier.
And although Mayor Steve Rosenthal shared possible scenarios with the aldermen for handling the change, they decided to table any decision until they could be provided with other options and a spreadsheet on the exact amounts involved.
At a previous session, the aldermen had discussed possibly using a sliding scale to determine employee contributions, if they decided to take that route. Rosenthal’s presentation was based on either one or two percent of the employee’s gross annual salary being used to deduct monthly payments, with a $50 per month cap.
However, Alderman Gary Fratesi said the proposal was unacceptable because he needed to know the bottom line, how much the employees would end up contributing versus how much the taxpayers would be assessed.
“I need to know that before I can vote,” he said.
That’s when Rosenthal said he would have to get the clerk to develop a spreadsheet to determine the impact.
The employees currently do not contribute any amount to the monthly premium for their personal health insurance. It is all at the expense of the taxpayers.
Beginning July 1, the monthly premium for each individual will increase by more than $100 resulting in an annual increase of $134,000.
During the discussion, Alderman Sam Brock asked whether the employees could alternatively opt out of participating in the city’s coverage and that sparked another debate.
City Clerk Lashanda Moore said if the employee did opt out, they could seek insurance through the governmental Marketplace.
The dialogue also included talk of giving the employees a raise in lieu of paying for the annual insurance premiums, which depending on the amount of the raise, could quantify as a savings for the city.
In addition, Rosenthal raised the issue of what would happen to the remaining workers if a qualifying number of employees did not take advantage of the coverage provided by the city.
Rosenthal said he would attempt to have answers to the questions that were raised by the next meeting.
