The City of Bloomington believes it's too expensive to stay self insured for worker health coverage. During GLT's Sound Ideas, Mayor Tari Renner said the city is moving to a risk pooling group with more than 100 other municipalities and other units of government.
"We have stabilized our budgetary process, but this is us continuing to try to make cuts and save money,"said Renner.
Renner says workers will have some higher deductibles and there will be other minor changes. The council voted unanimously Monday evening to join the Intergovernmental Personnel Benefits Cooperative. City staff hope to save up to $9-million dollars over 5 years by going to the cooperative, which has more than 100 cities and government participants.
"They have had a good rep. Essentially the vetting of them throughout the State of Illinois has almost universally produced positive reviews," said Renner.
Renner said the city has an annual opportunity to get out of the cooperative after a year, if the package does not perform as hoped.