Did Shreveport Overpay Millions in Healthcare Costs and Can We Get It Back?
Councilman Grayson Boucher talks about the drastic increase in Shreveport employees' insurance rates and how overpaying premiums by the city led to the problem.
A simplified explanation of the situation from John Settle and Settle Talk:
"The Shreveport city council was briefed by a representative of Gallagher Benefit Services, Inc. on the city's contribution to the self-funded heath insurance plan for city workers. The news was not good. The city had overpaid its portion to the tune of approximately $3.2 million per year since 2011."
And now the city wants to be paid back for the error, on what Councilman Grayson Boucher says is on the backs of city workers.
"In some cases (the increases) are running as much as 30 to 33%," Boucher says, "The city has an administrator (Gallagher Benefit Services) and they came and spoke to us...about a deficit in the healthcare trust fund.
Here's what Councilman Boucher told KEEL about the situation:
And now, Boucher says, the city and its employees are faced with balancing the true costs of the plan over the past decade totaling over $30 million.
In a Facebook post last week, Boucher made his position clear:
"The administration is 100% correct about the millions and millions of dollars that have been misappropriated in the healthcare trust fund over the years. Having said that, this is not the employees fault. How can the city punish our employees for errors that were made that they had zero control over. We do have to make internal changes, however the burden should not fall solely on our hardworking employees shoulders."