Fire Department May Receive An Increase In Health Insurance Premiums

CORPUS CHRISTI - Emotions ran high at Tuesday's city council meeting, as union representatives from the police and fire departments argued against city staff's recommendation to increase the fire department's health insurance premiums by 18 percent. Firefighters and some of the council members had questions about how the proposed hike was being justified.

While many police officers learned for the first time Tuesday that their health care premiums wouldn't be increasing, Corpus Christi firefighters learned they could be facing an 18 percent increase. Currently, the city's policy increases premiums based on claims cost, including doctor visits, hospitalization and pharmaceuticals.

"There is equity every time you pay for what you use and you're not dependent on another group to subsidize your increases," Assistant City Manager Oscar Martinez said. "The city still has close to 18 million dollars in reserves, and they can absorb this increase that they wanted, to give to the firefighters of 18 percent," CCFFA President Carlos Torres said.

City staff said firefighters had an 18 percent increase in claims for the last fiscal year in the dollar amount of $450,000. They said the only way to make up that money was to increase premiums by 18 percent for the next five months of the fiscal year to pump it back into the city's reserve fund. City staff added that without doing that, the burden of paying those and future claims would depend on the taxpayers.

news source : http://www.msnbc.msn.com