No Changes, For Now

Dec. 17--After two days of discussion, members of the Huntsville City Council voted unanimously to allow current city retirees to stay on their same group health insurance plan and Medicare supplement plan through United Healthcare for 2016.

The decision comes a day after council members heard from numerous city retirees who spoke out against proposed changes to the city's Retiree Health Insurance policy. The policy, set to go into effect Jan. 1, stated that employees who have at least 20 years of service with the city, who retire or are eligible to retire, will receive a monthly contribution of $750 from the city to purchase health insurance coverage through a private health care provider selected by the city.

Once the retiree reaches 65 years of age and is eligible for Medicare, the contribution will be reduced to $250 a month, which is $150 less than the city's original contribution of $400. The proposed changes would have switched "post-65" retirees from their current group health insurance plan and Medicare supplement plan, provided by the city through United Healthcare, to individual plans through Health Plan One.

Council members were unable to come to a clear decision on whether or not to make the changes to "post-65" retirees during Tuesday night's regularly scheduled meeting. Council members decided to recess until Wednesday in order to give human resources director Julie O'Connell enough time to gather more information.

According to O'Connell, the post-65 retirees are able to re-enroll in the Medicare Supplement Plan through United Healthcare, effective Jan. 1, 2016.

"Each of the retirees would have to contact United Healthcare directly to re-enroll. Since they received notification that each retiree has already enrolled in other plans, they have to cancel that plan first and re-enroll in United," O'Connell said Wednesday night.

"One thing I really want to stress," she added, "is the retiree has to make that phone call. It's not something the city can do. This plan is governed by Medicare, it is not governed by the city. It is a Medicare supplement plan and only the retiree can make that call to United to re-enroll in that plan."

The city currently has 34 "post-65" retirees, and 35 "pre-65" retirees. So far, 27 of the "post-65" retirees have signed up for the new Medicare supplement plans through Health Plan One. O'Connell says that those who have already enrolled in the plan can cancel and re-enroll with United Healthcare, since the new policy has yet to start, but they must do so in a hurry.

"If (retirees) have already paid for January, which some of our folks already have, it creates a credit balance and the carrier will refund them a check once it goes through the carrier system," O'Connell said. "Again, they have to contact Health Plan One to cancel, the retiree has to do that. That's a Medicare rule because apparently there have been different agents who have made changes for retirees in the past."

The city's decision to leave current city retirees on their original health insurance plan with United Healthcare, increases the monthly rate for the city by $21.

Former Huntsville police chief Hank Eckhardt, along with multiple retirees in attendance, were happy with Wednesday's unanimous discussion.

"I feel really good and I appreciate what the mayor and Council has done, to relook at the situation," Eckhardt said. "Sometimes things happen and you don't realize how everybody feels and what's best. It was very kind of them to take the time to listen to us and to relook at the situation and we're excited about how it's all come out."

Dianna Langley's husband, David, worked for more than 20 years for the city and retired in 2007. She says she is very happy about the outcome, stating "I think it is the best decision the city could have made."

Councilwoman Lydia Montgomery said the initial reasoning for council members to propose these changes to City Manager Matt Benoit and O'Connell was due to the city's current unfunded liabilities on retiree health care costs of $19.5 million.

Unfunded liabilities are the difference between the net amount of money for expected future government spending and the net value of projected future tax revenue.

"There is a major issue with unfunded liabilities in this city, as well as many other cities through the United States. We do have a problem and we have to solve it," Montgomery said. "If we allow things to continue it affects everything -- your bond ratings, your indebtedness and other things like that.

"You have to look at going forward the health and the financial well-being of the city because it's a giant debt and you can not sustain it, we all know that. We all have to work towards something. Every year we've talked about it and after two years we were ready to take that step and then these exchanges are having issues, so what could we do? We had to step back another year and see what happens."

All in all, Montgomery believes Wednesday's decision was the right thing to do.

"It gives us more time to look at the situation, number one. Number two, I'm concerned about the whole industry and how it's going to shake out. I felt it was the wrong thing to leave people in limbo, and worst of all, to put them on a product that may not serve their needs."

The next scheduled City Council meeting will be Jan. 5, 2016, inside City Hall. That's when mayor-elect Andy Brauninger will be sworn in as the new mayor of Huntsville. Actually, Brauninger will take the oath of office Sunday at 2 p.m., but the city's swearing-in ceremony is scheduled Jan. 5.

For more information visit the City of Huntsville website at www.huntsvilletx.gov.

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