Board of Aldermen 3-31-2020 Page 18
Larry Budreau, Human Resources Director
Thanks Director Kleiner, Good Evening Alderman Jette.
Alderman Jette
Good evening.
Larry Budreau, Human Resources Director
| think that one speculation or the reason that people join HMO is that they perceive that it may cost them less
which | believe you indicated. | think that’s a reasonable speculation, the reason that so many people are in
the HMO is because it has been the predominant healthcare plan for the last 40 years in this country. So
people have because that’s what they had and high deductible plan is much newer than that. If you are
comfortable with the plan you had at the last company then you join it when you come here.
So the high deductible health plan is, for the whole country, a new opportunity. | don’t believe perhaps some
cases it would be true, but | don’t believe that you could find many comparisons between two people with the
same healthcare conditions who would save money through having the HMO. And to the point of whether
people can access healthcare, the speculation will the higher cost payments move into the HDHP and
therefore the difference will go away? We would hope not and over time, as the data builds, and there’s now
probably 15 years of data that Anthem has that WBS can access, it continues to be consistently lower, it is
still $4,000.00 on average all these years later. So | think there’s a good chance that the lower cost continues
to prevail and I’m not sure that when people make healthcare decisions, | have been party to those first day of
employment decisions people make for a long time. It is not necessarily analysis because they think they are
choosing the least expensive; they are often choosing the one that they are most comfortable with. Thank
you.
Alderman Jette
Thank you.
President Wilshire
Anything further, Alderman Jette?
Alderman Jette
No, thank you very much.
Alderman Klee
Thank you and this probably goes to Director Budreau. Alderman Dowd had asked this question about the
breaking up of that $3,000.00 between July 1° and October 1“. First my question is it common practice to do
a lump sum or is it something — | mean so is that just part of the way that the program would work, you would
just pay it all at once or with an equal amount of payments. And the second part of that is what is the
expected loss, do we know on average how many people leave?
Larry Budreau, Human Resources Director
May | Madam President.
