Irvine city council approves new insurance rates

The Irvine City Council met in special session Monday night to discuss how to make higher health insurance rates less painful for employees.
The council approved a plan that keeps the amount taken from employee’s paychecks the same but carries a higher deductible.
Councilwoman Janice Bush said, “I’ve looked at these numbers all day long.  I hate for employees to have more taken out of their checks.”
She said she leaned toward option two, which would not increase the amount taken out of employees’ checks for premiums but carries a higher deductable.
Councilman Tommy Bryant said he preferred option three which takes no money out of employees’ checks but has a larger deductible than option two.
“This would free up more of their own money to go toward the deductible,” he said.
Option three would cost the city $15,000 more than option two.
Bryant said he hated to raise the prices on anything, but pointed out that if the council voted to increase a rate by approximately $1 a month, they could come up with the increased revenue to pay for the increase in insurance costs.
He also said that the council hadn’t raised rates on anything for a few years, despite increases in the cost of gasoline and other expenses.
Mayor Farmer said not many people have insurance where they don’t have to pay anything.
After some discussion, a motion was made to go with option two, with a 17.5 percentage in rate increase above current costs.  Employees will continue to pay the same premium per pay period, but will have to pay a greater deductible than they are currently paying.
In additional business, the council met in closed session to discuss a personnel issue.  Mayor Farmer later said that no action was taken concerning the matter.