By: Diane Benjamin
Tonight the Bloomington City Council will consider changing providers for Employee Health Insurance. It could save A LOT of money:
Under Obamacare, employers with “Gold plated” insurance were supposed to pay significant penalties. Enactment of that provision got delayed after the people receiving it threw a fit at possibly paying more or getting benefit cuts. There is nothing in tonight’s documentation addressing this issue. Maybe that provision was scrapped again this election year.
Meanwhile, non-government employers pass much of the cost of insurance on to their employees – especially for family coverage. Rates and deductibles employees pay are now ridiculous.
Not so for government employees. Look at the 2015 compensation report for City employees: http://www.cityblm.org/Modules/ShowDocument.aspx?documentid=10099
How much are employees contributing for health insurance? What deductibles do employees shoulder? Those questions will not be part of the conversation.
Here’s a sample from the compensation report. The highlighted numbers are what the City pays: (click to enlarge)
Add pension and FICA expenses and each employee costs around 50% more than their base salary.
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$1,000/month for health insurance would have to include family coverage, dental, eyes and prescription drugs with little or no co-pay. Must be nice!
i bet it’s just like Sick Leave Buy Back – no way to change it.
Union contracts!!
Even the non-union get great benefits. If nobody is willing to fight the unions and start comparing the private sector, we will all live under the government employees who think they are above the citizens. Some already do.