MANCHESTER, N.H. – Rising healthcare costs are a major concern for many Americans and Manchester’s city government employees are no different. On Tuesday, the Manchester Board of Mayor and Aldermen (BMA) heard a presentation on the topic of healthcare costs as they continue to deliberate upon a Fiscal Year 2025 City Budget.
The City of Manchester’s Human Resources Director Lisa Drabik and Finance Director Sharon Wickens were joined by other health insurance representatives with the presentation, which was not made available to the public in advance of Tuesday night’s meeting.
Wickens and Drabik spoke positively about efforts to curb pharmacy costs through increased use of Truveris and other savings through the city’s use of Anthem’s SmartShopper program. According to the presentation, SmartShopper alone saved the city approximately $620,000. This was the highest annual cost savings for the program since its implementation for Manchester city employees in 2018.
However, most of the presentation was focused on a recommended 16 percent premium increase by USI, one of the city’s insurance partners, to maintain the city’s contractually obligated health insurance services for its employees.
That recommendation comes a $3,980,504 projected shortfall between what has been allocated and what is needed for the Fiscal Year ‘25 budget, set to begin on July 1.
Given the current cost sharing agreement and its employees, with the city covering 80 percent of costs, with the recommended increases there would be a $7.06 weekly increase for individuals, $14.19 weekly increase for couples and $18.98 weekly increase for families using the HMO plan. Employees using the high deductible health savings account plan would see comparative weekly increases of $6.69, $13.42, and $17.26.
Wickens and Drabik also noted that much of the increase came from ten city employees with severe illness, who accounted for $3 million of the $16.9 million spent among the 2,814 people on city health insurance on average each month.
Alderman At-Large Dan O’Neil hoped that additional information could be provided behind closed doors on how some of these severe illnesses could have been prevented to help learn how to get early treatment for employees that could have similar illnesses in the future.
The other At-Large Alderman, BMA Chairman Joseph Kelly Levasseur, expressed frustration with the fact that this information was presented after Manchester Mayor Jay Ruais released his proposed budget, believing that the perception would be that employees would blame the Aldermen for their premium hikes.
“I think you put it on us because you didn’t want to put it on yourselves,” he said.
Wickens said that the information presented on Tuesday had not yet been available when the mayor was required to present his budget to the Aldermen, also noting that up until last year such presentations were not given at all. Last year’s change came in part due to former Manchester Mayor Joyce Craig’s concerns about a similar large increase in premium costs that the Aldermen may want to weigh in on. Wickens stated that she serves at the direction of the board and is happy to follow their guidance on this matter or independently pursue rates believed in the best interest of the city with Aldermanic input if the Aldermen defer on providing guidance, which was the case prior to 2023.
Drabik said that a vote on whether or not to approve the recommended rate would have been optimal on Tuesday due to a new enrollment platform that city employees can use to choose plans for the next Fiscal Year. However, Aldermen expressed concerns over a lack of understanding over the matter.
“There are questions we need to answer over the next two weeks,” said Ruais. “I don’t think a consensus is going to be drawn tonight.”
Drabik said without a decision on Tuesday that her staff could get the enrollment platform ready for beginning of the open enrollment period for city employees, which would begin on May 1. However, she also stated that a decision would need to be made at the BMA’s next meeting on April 16.