Designed for employees and retirees effective January 1st, 2026 by Councilwoman Jen Rock, uh, Councilman Cleve Dunn Jr.

and Councilman Dwight Hudson.

Anyone here wishing to speak on this item?

Seeing none, we'll go to council.

Go.

Motion by Councilwoman Rock and second by councilwoman.

Oh, sorry.

Councilwoman Coleman.

Uh, Councilman Dunn Jr.

Just after the item is passed, I want to upon a personal previous please.

Councilman Hearst.

So I had a meeting with Hub, I had a meeting with um Angie, uh Blue Cross, and and I explained to them because I want to make this clear that I got an email this morning saying thank you for voting no transitioning us from where we are to where they want to take us.

And my response to that individual was it might be the right plan for you.

Don't discount the plan, just make sure that you compare your current plan to your older plan to ensure that what's in it covers what you need.

And I made sure that I said it on the call because I'm not against the Medicare Advantage.

I was told that everything but the individualized plan that we have is horrible out in the marketplace.

And Hub agreed with me.

They've heard that from hospitals and other folks to Medicare Advantage is awful.

So in this case, um there were a couple of questions that came up that made me have a cause for pause, and I'm gonna ask Angie to come up to the microphone.

Because I want to clear this up for the public because we have Thrive on the ballot, and it's extremely important that we disseminate information that's relevant to what's going on in November, but the state of the city.

So I saw that in tons of discussions, the number 19 million was brought up.

What is the gross number?

And then let's talk about what number actually affects the general fund because what I don't want people to do is say, oh, the city saved 19 million.

Um there's no need for us to vote yes to thrive.

That was one of my biggest concerns that I brought up last meeting.

So my question is what are the overall savings and then how much directly impacts the general fund, which is what the people that are listening and watching want to know if the city's in a crisis, how much of this directly affects that crisis?

So can you talk about the overall number and then talk about the direct number that affects the crisis?

So the overall number that's being proposed from the house.

A little over 16.3 million dollars.

So it's not 19 million.

We're moving towards the 19 million.

Y'all had passed an ordinance that asked us to consider 19 million dollars worth of savings.

What's being proposed now is 16 million, 16.3.

So we are still considering and moving towards to getting to that full 19 million.

However, this was something considering the time that we were given to implement these changes that we feel are attainable and reasonable, and less disruptive to the employee and retirees.

And that's great.

And again, I'm glad you put in the employee and retirees first.

So how much of this 16 million directly impacts the 21 million dollar deficit in terms of savings, which is the general fund money.

So you might not know a direct number, but the what you gave me a number, so just repeat the number publicly.

So in the health insurance plan, six point two million is the general fund savings that we are seeing in the health insurance program as well as the post-employment program.

So it's not 19 is six.

I'm saying that publicly, and that's not to go.

I'm glad that they said I think six million is a lot to save.

And I'm glad that they went to that size.

It's not the point.

The point is for the public to know that you still need to vote yes to five.

Because 19 million says if I'm a voter and I'm saying 19 million, I'm saying, well, man, they could find two million somewhere, cut some cost savings.

I'm okay with a two million dollar deficit, but a 21 million dollar deficit is different at six than versus nineteen.

So I just want to make that clear to the public.

And I had one question, because I want y'all to know I was actually in favor of voting for this until the op the op out part came to me.

Because they're cleared up the Medicaid Advantage stuff.

And I was fine, but I asked a thousand questions up front, then on the back, and I thought it was what gave me cost for pause.

And I'm gonna ask hold but no, that's okay.

Latari, you come to the mic, please.

Very quickly, I'd like to save my time if possible.

So the question that I have, and what was more concerning for me is that major health care risks for individuals typically don't happen until they warn their youthful body out, which is post-retirement.

I asked for a yes or no question, and I said, I know the general stuff is good because I've already asked that.

That's why I'm for it.

Most of the medicines are covered, maybe not all of them, but the specialist, when people have oncology, renal, uh whatever it may be, life saving specialist.

I answered, are they able to go to the same doctors now that they are in the future?