[0:04] Mayor Reese
>> here. Council member Ross
[0:07] » here.
>> Nelson here. Gilbertson
[0:10] » here.
>> Gardner
[0:12] » here.
>> Davis here. Butterfield
[0:15] » here.
>> Liz
[0:16] » here.
>> And Mr. Fragley is absent.
[0:21] So eight present, one absent.
>> Stand for the pledge.
[0:31] I pledge algiance to the flag of America
and to the republic for which it stands.
[0:38] One god, indivisible, liberty and
justice for [clears throat]
[0:52] just one agenda item. And who's taking
it? I didn't ask Kyle or Leslie.
[0:59] » Oh, actually, I'm going to let Alyssa
take it.
[1:03] » Okay.
>> HR director collected all this
[1:06] information.
>> You guys okay if I Rick? You can all see
[1:10] me.
>> There. That's your spot.
[1:14] » Thanks. [laughter]
Um, good morning. Thanks for coming so
[1:19] early. Uh, so I think all of you guys
know that we got our PEEP renewal back
[1:27] the end of September. This was year one
of a four-year contract. Um, so we were
[1:33] not expecting to make any changes to our
health insurance for this year, but our
[1:37] PEP uh contract had an opt out clause if
the renewal came back at 20% or above.
[1:44] And it did come back at 20%. So that
gave us the opportunity to go out and
[1:48] get quotes from other insurance
companies um or
[1:54] uh for new health insurance. So if you
want to go to
[2:01] Yep. Thank you. So um we engaged a
broker to go out shopping for us. He did
[2:09] an RFP
and we got quotes back um
[2:14] uses Blue Cross and Health Partners. Uh
we got quotes back from them directly
[2:19] that were both well above uh PE's
renewal rate. Um Blue Cross came back at
[2:25] 55.6%
and Health Partners came back at a 37%
[2:30] increase from our 2025 premiums.
Medicica came back with a 13% increase.
[2:37] And then kind of at the 11th hour, we
got um a bid from um MHC, which is the
[2:44] Minnesota Healthcare Consortium. So
there's a whole bunch of entities across
[2:50] the state of Minnesota that pull
together for um purchase power of
[2:55] insurance products. So we would access
this through the Southwest West Central
[3:01] Service Cooperative, which we're already
members of. that gives us access to the
[3:06] Minnesota Healthcare Consortium pool and
that policy came back at just a 7%
[3:11] increase over our 2025. So that's the
contract that we're bringing to you guys
[3:17] today to approve um in addition to being
the best rate.
[3:24] Next slide. Um it gives us more
flexibility in what we can actually
[3:29] offer our employees as well. So, we
won't be locked into just a single plan
[3:34] that has single and family coverage. Um,
we would actually be able to offer not
[3:38] only a plan that's pretty equivalent to
what we would have offered through PEEP,
[3:43] but we have two other plans available to
employees as well, depending on what's a
[3:47] better fit for them. So, for example,
there's a higher deductible, lower
[3:51] premium plan if employees want to take
that cheaper option. Um, there are
[3:55] different combinations of deductible and
out-of pocket. And we were able to split
[4:00] the plans up into four tiers. So instead
of just single or family coverage, we'll
[4:04] be able to offer employee plus children
or employee plus spouse coverage, which
[4:09] also is a better rate than family.
Um, so you can see this kind of a
[4:16] comparison of what that PE plan uh would
have been for this year and the three
[4:21] plans that we're planning to offer
through the Minnesota Healthcare
[4:24] Consortium, which does youth Medicica.
It's also an open access network. Right
[4:29] now with PEEP, employees have to name a
primary care clinic and if they go
[4:34] anybody outside of that clinic, they
have to have a referral. Medicica uses
[4:38] an open access network. So anybody
that's in network with Medicica, which
[4:42] would be the majority of providers
around the state, employees can go see.
[4:46] They don't have to get referrals every
time they have to go see somebody about
[4:49] a knee or a dermatologist or a, you
know, whatever.
[4:53] » So central here does except
>> Yep. Yep.
[4:58] So, that's what we're proposing today.
That's the resolution that you guys
[5:02] have. Um, one other additional thing
we'd like to add on to that plan is an
[5:07] employee assistance program for 2025. We
have a version of this through the
[5:12] standard, which is where we had our
ancillary benefits. So, our life
[5:15] insurance and all of those kinds of
things. We had already switched away
[5:20] from them for 2026 because we were able
to get better rates on all of those
[5:24] benefits. Um, but the one thing we lost
was an employee assistance program
[5:27] through them. Um, Medicica allows us to
add that on for just a $180 per
[5:32] employee. So, that would get added on to
the premium and that offers employees
[5:36] the opportunity to go see um, usually
virtually a counselor for anything from
[5:43] like mental health and substance abuse
issues to things like going through a
[5:47] divorce or my child's struggling in
school, that kind of thing. They can get
[5:51] up to five sessions per event for free
for them or family members. Um there's
[5:56] financial planning assistance. They can
help um people find child care or elder
[6:01] care. Quite a few different um nurses
and additional support to employees. Um
[6:08] with the idea that besides supporting
our employees, when people have access
[6:13] to those kind of services, it helps keep
them out of like the ER for example.
[6:18] They can get mental health counseling,
that kind of thing. So for an almost
[6:22] invisible cost compared to the overall
premium, um we'd like to add on that
[6:26] additional service to the plan as well
for employees.
[6:31] » Questions?
[6:36] » Yeah. Um so it seems to me you found us
the plan that's that's far cheaper than
[6:42] the alternatives that seems better than
what we currently have at least gives
[6:45] employees better option. Uh, what
objections might you foresee coming from
[6:51] employees who would find the older plan
better? What do you What do we hear?
[6:57] » Honestly, other than that they have a
different insurance card, they're not
[7:02] going to notice a change. We're even
able to keep our same HSA administrator,
[7:06] so we don't even have to switch where
their HSA dollars go. So, I don't
[7:12] anticipate a complaint. Um there's
there's more plan options for those
[7:18] people that have been paying the family
rate for just themselves and their
[7:21] spouse. They'll be able to get a cheaper
plan. Um for those people that rarely go
[7:26] to the doctor and would rather take that
high deductible plan and have a low
[7:29] premium.
So I mean there will be a a slight
[7:34] increase in premium because there is
every year with healthcare and they're
[7:38] never happy about that. But their
experience
[7:43] really changed. So, it's it was hard for
me to imagine what what those complaints
[7:48] hold to me. I don't see any.
[7:55] » What's your experience? [laughter]
>> Well, it sounds better if you ask me.
[8:00] So, I don't
>> It's a better plan. Like, we didn't give
[8:03] up any coverage for the price. We didn't
have to say, "Okay, we're really
[8:08] restricting our network or whatever in
order to get something reasonably
[8:12] priced." It's actually a better plan,
better coverage, better network for the
[8:17] price once we went out on the open
market and shopping.
[8:20] » Um, yeah,
>> out of the $154,000
[8:26] increase uh from last year's costs, how
much of that will be on the city and how
[8:32] much of that will be on the
>> That will depend on negotiations. So
[8:36] that's to to be determined still based
on what the union contracts end up being
[8:41] » in the event that they are identical to
last year. What is burnt down?
[8:46] [clears throat]
>> No, we can't answer that because that's
[8:50] part of negotiations.
[8:54] » Sorry,
>> I guess. Okay.
[8:57] Currently, what percentage of the health
insurance premiums is covered by the
[9:03] employees?
currently 11%.
[9:06] » Thank you.
>> I will note one other thing about this
[9:11] plan. Uh they gave us a secondyear rate
guarantee not to exceed a 15% increase.
[9:19] We would actually hope for something
better and we're not locked into a
[9:22] contract the way that we were with PE.
So they'll give us a renewal based on
[9:26] the market at that time and our claims
and we can go shopping again. But worst
[9:31] case scenario is our rate cannot exceed
15% increase for 2027.
[9:40] » Any other questions?
[9:44] » We are not I I have
>> we are not locked in. So they gave us a
[9:48] cap on the rate but it's not a contract.
We can go shopping at the end of the
[9:51] next year.
They're going to be asked to select us,
[9:55] but if they're part of a union,
they don't really know.
[10:02] I mean, they have to select one of these
three.
[10:04] » Yes. Exactly.
>> Based off on what their healthcare needs
[10:08] are.
>> Yes. The employer contribution will be
[10:12] the same for all three plans. The
employee then chooses whether they want
[10:16] to put their own dollars into a higher
premium or a higher deductible. Thank
[10:21] you. So, we don't know exactly what that
employer contribution is yet, but it
[10:26] will be the same no matter which plan
they pick. So, the difference in the
[10:30] cost of the plans would be their real
savings no matter what.
[10:34] » Steve has a question.
>> What percentage increase did we assume
[10:37] in our budget projection that this was
going to, you know, I assume we assumed
[10:42] some type of increase to this 20%. So,
that in theory, this helps drive down
[10:47] the budget a little bit.
>> Yes.
[10:50] » Okay. Thanks.
>> Any other questions?
[10:56] Other words, I'm looking for a motion to
approve the 2026 health insurance.
[11:03] » Second motion and a second. Discussion.
Any further discussion?
[11:11] Roll call.
Council
[11:13] » member Os. Hi. Nelson. Hi. Gilbertson.
Hi.
[11:18] » Gardner. Hi.
Davis I Butterfield
[11:22] » I and
>> Shelus I
[11:25] » seven eyes's zero nos
[11:31] to second we are just broke
>> [laughter]
[11:38] [clears throat]
[11:42] [laughter]