Middle Switches Employees’ Health Care Benefits

COURT HOUSE – In the morning there was every indication that the Nov. 27 special meeting of Middle Township Committee would be a contentious one with a partisan split on a series of health care resolutions.  
Council member Timothy Donohue, a Republican, soon-to-be back in the majority on the governing body, sent an email urging residents to turn out for the meeting.
Donohue challenged whether or not “the outgoing majority” should be “making decisions that will not take effect until after the deputy mayor leaves office and the mayor is no longer in the majority.”
The email implied a difference of opinion on the decisions to be made or at least on the timing of the decision.
At the meeting all resolutions were swiftly and unanimously passed.
At the meeting, Donohue said his efforts to hold up the movement to the state program had been motivated by a desire to ensure that information was fully shared with those impacted by the change and with taxpayers. He indicated that he felt that goal had been met and withdrew any opposition to moving ahead.
He also indicated that he had “respect for the process the township went through” vetting the change in programs.
What was at stake?
The agenda for the special meeting had eight resolutions. All but one dealt with a change in township health care benefits for employees and retirees.  The effect of the resolutions was to shift the township’s health benefits from the Southern Coastal Health Insurance Fund (HIF) to the state health benefits program.
Mark Senior of Marsh McLennan, the township’s insurance broker, said the municipality began exploring the change almost three months earlier when township expense for the benefits plan seemed to be rising from $3.8 million in 2018 to a HIF proposed amount of just over $4 million for the coming year.
What followed were 14 meetings with employee and union representatives to consider a change back to the state plan which the township left seven years ago.
Senior said the effort to look at alternatives to the HIF always had the goal of same or better coverage at a lower cost to the township and with no higher expense for the employees and retirees.
According to Senior, the return to the state will reduce the expense to the township by over 12 percent in 2019 over 2018. The new cost figures also represented almost a half million dollar savings over the initial projected cost of staying with the HIF for 2019.
To keep the township business, the HIF offered a reduced price on the day of the special meeting, but the price associated with moving to the state was still lower.
Senior noted that the state program would offer the same benefits as employees have under the HIF with more choice of plans, including a Medicare supplement plan.
Deputy Mayor Jeffrey DeVico noted that the HIF would be returning a premium surplus of about $1.1 million in installments over the next six years. “We’ll be getting a little something each year,” DeVico said.
Avoiding an increase in health insurance costs is of particular importance for 2019 because the township recently learned that its projected costs from the Cape May County Municipal Utility Authority would again be higher than what was budgeted.
Change of Control
The meeting also displayed evidence that a change in partisan control of the governing body would occur in January.
The only resolution not in some way tied to the health care program changes was one authorizing a request for proposals and qualifications for the positions of municipal solicitor, municipal prosecutor, and municipal public defender. 
The occupants of each of those positions tend to shift when there is a change in party control of the governing body.
To contact Vince Conti, email vconti@cmcherald.com.