The DeKalb County Commission was ready to pay nearly $1.6 million more for employee health care next year but delayed voting Tuesday after the county executive called for the county to pay more of the cost of care so that employees can pay less.
At issue is a popular HMO plan that the commission agreed to include in its health care options for 2012 after employees said in a public meeting that they would be willing to pay more for it. Overall, adding that plan back in and maintaining the other plans would increase costs nearly 9 percent for the county taxpayers and county workers.
CEO Burrell Ellis, though, said the county should drop that plan, bringing the overall increase down to 4.3 percent. Finance and human resources officials proposed the county, not workers, absorb most of that increase.
“Employees have not gotten a salary increase; there have been no new perks,” said Human Resources Director Benita Ransom. “We wanted to find a way to make an effort to do something for employees that at the same time minimizes the county’s cost.”
That wasn’t what workers told commission members they wanted at a night meeting earlier this month. They wanted a return of the Cigna HMO, which has higher premiums but does not have any deductible. Workers also could choose from other plans, such as a Cigna PPO or a Kaiser HMO that is far more restrictive than the one run by Cigna.
Commissioners voted to bring back the Cigna HMO, which was eliminated last year, in committee two weeks ago. Tuesday, many remained reluctant to back away from that commitment when Finance Director Joel Gottlieb laid out the CEO's proposal to a commission committee.
“The employees will think that we have duped them and jerked the insurance out from under them,” Commissioner Elaine Boyer said, as at least two employees in the audience nodded.
“This is not acceptable,” she added. “This is not a satisfying way to do business.”
The commission committee recessed for several hours Tuesday afternoon, hoping to get a formal proposal from the administration that would show how much employees would pay for various insurance plans, both with and without the Cigna HMO. That information was not included in Gottlieb's outline.
That effort was scuttled late Tuesday, when it was clear that figures would not be available. Gottlieb is expected to present that data to the committee of the whole, when the full commission meets in work session, at 9 a.m. next Tuesday.
The full commission is then expected to vote on one of the two options at its Oct. 11 meeting.
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