Since May Plymouth Clerk Treasure Jeanine Xaver and City Attorney Sean Surrisi has been investigating the possibility of changing from a fully insured health insurance plan to a self funded plan.
Wakely Consulting was hired to review the options and made the recommendation to move on self funding saying the city could have significant savings based on the trends. Five self fund quotes from three plan providers were compared with UMR having the best pricing. The expected annual cost was $995,783.54.
Surrisi said the current premiums for the fully funded insurance plan with Advantage Health Solutions are $1,049,416.44. He then gave a very good bit of news to the Common Council. Although the city anticipated a significant increase to premiums next year, and had department heads budget a 30% increase the actual cost has come in and the city will see a reduction of 7% or $73,459.80 in savings.
Xaver said this is the fourth year with no rate increase.
The recommendation of the Clerk Treasure and from Gibson Insurance is to stay with the fully insured health insurance plan.
It was suggested that next year, after the new council members are on board a work session on self funded insurance be done because there are a number of advantages and the city may need to consider the option in the future.
