The Plymouth City Council members learned this week that insurance rates will be going up, but not at the steep increase that was originally thought.
Ryan Colvin from Gibson Insurance gave the council the good news that through extensive negotiation and other efforts, the city will only experience a 19 percent increase in insurance rates. An earlier prediction was about 60 percent.
He explained that it’s been 10 years or so since the city has seen any sizeable increase in insurance rates. The employees’ share hasn’t increased since 2014.
The city normally pays 95 percent of the insurance coverage for the employee only and 85 percent for all other coverage. In this scenario, the increase for an employee only would be $2.20 while the increase for a family plan is $10.30.
Clerk-Treasurer Jeanine Xaver said it’s a nice benefit to be able to offer the coverage that the city is able to provide for the employees. She added that the budget will allow the city to absorb the increase to employees so the employees don’t experience any impact to their pocketbooks.
Councilman Jeff Houin stated that he ran the numbers with Xaver. The city budgeted for the worst case scenario and will come out about $450,000 ahead so he made a motion for the city to absorb that increase to the employees which is about $200,000. The motion passed with unanimous approval.
In addition, the council unanimously approved a consulting fee increase for Gibson Insurance to $33,000. An increase hasn’t occurred for over five years when it was raised then to $31,500.
