1999-10-25 Regular Meeting and Workshop Meeting

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e e Yes. An employee who must retire as a result of a disability should be afforded coverage just like a disabled active employee. To prevent discrimination, you should charge the same rate for the disabled retiree as any other retiree. Please keep in mind that a disabled retiree should be happy to receive full medial benefits, regardless of the premium, given their retiree and disabled status. 7. We need to analyze the impact this proposal will have on our existing workforce as well as our retirees. The emotional impact from an employee/retiree perspective may be hard to measure from my vantagepoint. Certainly we will measure the downstream impact of these eligibility changes on the claims experience versus premium contributions. My experience with other public entities has been that existing and near retirees are more concerned about the availability of the coverage than its cost. lfthey (retirees) are informed that certain measures are required to maintain the availability of the coverage to existing andfuture retirees, they are less critical than if they are threatened by the loss of the coverage. Active employees don't necessarily make career decisions about employment based on retiree health insurance availability in the future. 8. We also need to understand how COBRA will impact this benefit. COBRA will not impact the proposed changes directly. Of course any employee choosing COBRA benefits at retirement can do so. COBRA status does not contemplate any contribution by the employer. There is no COBRA benefit to a retiree if he chooses to leave the plan. I hope these observations help in the decision making process, and of course I plan on being at the City Council meeting on Monday, October 25th. Best regards, Neal W. Welch fax copy: Bob Herrera, City Manager 3 The Welch Companv