The cost of health-insurance coverage for city employees will hit $6.3 billion this year and is rising by an unsustainable 10 percent a year, Deputy Mayor Cas Holloway warned yesterday.
In a speech before the Citizens Budget Commission, Holloway said the city’s health-benefits tab will reach $8.2 billion by 2018 unless reforms are enacted.
He proposed seeking new bids for health insurance that would include “wellness programs” capable of cutting costs by at least $400 million a year.
Municipal-union leaders would have to agree, and their initial reaction was, at best, lukewarm, although Holloway suggested the savings could be passed on as raises to workers whose contracts expired as far back as 2009.
Harry Nespoli, chairman of the Municipal Labor Committee, questioned why the administration was making such a far-reaching proposal in its final months.
“I think the next administration should turn around and be the ones sitting at the table,” he said.
Nespoli defended the current health plans and said he’d oppose pressuring workers to sign up for wellness programs, such as those that encourage smokers to quit.
“I don’t think it’s the responsibility of anybody to tell people how to live their lives,” he said.