Wednesday, January 23, 2019

Allentown $3 Million Over Budget On Health Care

The Morning Call
Allentown spent $3 million over budget on health care for 2018
"On the heels of a contentious discussion about the city’s 27 percent tax increase for 2019, Allentown officials have revealed they overspent on health care costs by $3 million last year."

How about offering employees $1,600 more a month ($10 an hour more) and let them buy their own private insurance. This is not a crazy as it sounds. The article says the city has 765 employees. If you take 160 work hours a month times 765 employees this works out to $1.224 million per month. Times that by 12 months it would impact the budget $14.688 million a year. That's some $6 million less then the city spend in 2018. Most important of all-- it would be a steady outlay without the unexpected surprises.

Am I missing something here?

3 comments:

  1. It came as a surprise to me that the Mayor and City Council did not anticipate the rising costs of health care insurance.The tax-increase should have been larger to cover operating expenses

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    Replies
    1. What surprised me there are no deductibles for ER visits. That hardly discourages users from abusing their plans. What employer allows that kind of nonsense? Also questioning the claim the average doctor visit is over $500. Seems out-of-line to me.

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