Even with a looming 22-percent increase in health insurance premiums for Iola city employees, the city’s health insurance plan remains among the best in the state, a Blue Cross Blue Shield consultant said Monday.
David Dillon, a BCBS consultant out of Independence, told Iola City Council members a large number of claims over the past 32 months was the largest factor in the increase.
“The claims in question occurred in the middle period, which is the most heavily weighted,” Dillon said.
While the city is self-funded, it sets its premiums based upon recommendations from BCBS.
“On the upside, the city has a fantastic health insurance program,” Dillon said. “You have a Mercedes plan here.”
In 2004, Iola was the first municipality in the state to set up a self-funded program coupled with health savings accounts with low deductibles.
The deductibles Iola offers its employees are so low — $1,500 and $3,000 — that BCBS no longer offers such services.
“The lowest you’ll see is now $2,500 and $5,000,” Dillon said.
The deductible is what an employee pays first before their insurance kicks in at 80 percent. When the second amount is reached, insurance covers 100 percent.
Iola’s policy is grandfathered in, even after the Affordable Care Act was established, allowing the city to keep the attractive deductible levels, Dillon explained.
The new monthly premiums, which take effect Nov. 1, will be $418.18 for a single employee and $942.79 for family plans.
The city pays 100 percent of the premiums for single employees, while the employees receiving family coverage pay an additional $250 monthly toward the premium.
For comparison’s sake — a tricky proposition, because coverage and deductibles may vary — other municipal employees in the state pay anywhere from $173 to $754 for single plans and $550 to $1,686 for family coverage, City Administrator Carl Slaugh said.
The city’s reserve balance remains strong, Slaugh said, at $431,651, well above the $350,000 threshold the city prefers.
COUNCIL members approved requests from the Farm-City Days Committee to allow for a different parade route on Oct. 17, the busiest day of the five-day fall festival. The parade will head south on Jefferson Avenue, at Monroe Street, to Madison Avenue or U.S. 54, then west to Jackson Avenue, and north again.
Council members also approved a request to offer up a season pass to the Iola Municipal Pool as a prize for drawings as part of a medallion hunt.
The 44th annual celebration runs Oct. 13-18.
THE COUNCIL agreed to forgive nearly $3,000 in charges to landowners at 307 E. Irwin, provided the new landowner builds a house on the land within the next two years.
Mason Sigg asked if the city would be willing to forgive $2,973.50 in special assessments — mostly from having to send weed notices and mow the land periodically because the current owners have neglected the property for years — if he were to purchase and develop it.
Council members agreed, but asked City Attorney Bob Johnson to draw up language in a contract that would reinstate the charges if the land is not improved, or if it’s sold without a new building being added.
In an unrelated matter, the Council scheduled public hearings on Oct. 26 for owners of houses at 706 N. Washington Ave. and 824 E. Jackson Ave. to determine if the homes are unsafe and should be removed.
COUNCIL members corrected a typo in an ordinance enacted earlier this year setting new electric rates for residential and commercial customers in the city.
The ordinance improperly set new meter charges for all-electric commercial users at $7.50 per month, not $17.50, as it should have been. Previously, those customers paid $12.50 a month in meter charges, Slaugh said.
