Lower costs , better health care benefits for city workers

New Albany taxpayers and city employees will enjoy substantial savings under new health insurance coverage during the coming year.

The board of aldermen voted unanimously last month to accept an employee health insurance proposal for the coming year from the Affordable Employee Benefits Agency in Ecru.

Previously, for several decades, the Morgan-White Agency of Jackson had been the city’s health insurance agent.

As in the past, the primary health care coverage will be by Blue Cross.

This year Affordable Employee Benefits proposed to insure city workers for a total annual premium of $682,886, a savings of $47,864 compared to Morgan-White’s quote of $730,750.

However, the six-and-a-half percent total premium savings to taxpayers is only part of the story. City workers will enjoy additional benefits under the new plan, two of which are:

• A $500 deductible instead of $750.
• About 400 prescription drugs, mostly maintenance prescriptions, will be available to city employees and their insured dependents with a zero co-pay.

Because of these and other enhanced benefits, it is estimated that total annual out-of-pocket medical expenses for city workers will be nearly $100-thousand less under the Affordable Employee Benefit plan than they would have been under the Morgan-White proposal.

The health insurance quotes from Affordable Employee Benefits and Morgan-White drew extra scrutiny this year because health insurance is one of the larger city expenses, amounting to about ten percent of the total annual New Albany municipal budget.

Mayor Tim Kent said there was no opposition to accepting the bid from Affordable Employee Benefits. The board vote was 5-0.

Enrollment of city workers in the new health coverage has been completed. The new coverage became effective June 1.