Civil union costs estimate for city revised

A St. Louis-based actuary says he is revising his estimate that providing benefits to spouses of employees in civil unions would cost the city of Springfield an extra $725,000 a year.

The revision comes as the city?s Joint Labor/Management Health Care Committee on Tuesday is scheduled to reconsider its 10-0 decision not to provide the benefits.

The actuary?s estimate has been questioned by Mayor Mike Houston, who has said he believes the city, which is self-insured, can offer the coverage without a significant increase in premiums.

Responding to city questions last week about his assumption that 65 people would participate in the plan if it were offered, Ray Martin of MarAcon LLC pointed to national census figures that showed roughly 6.5 percent of households nationwide have ?unrelated members? living together.

?The unrelated members could be same sex or opposite,? he wrote to city budget director Bill McCarty. ?Both have potential to move to a civil union to receive benefits.?

Martin, who couldn?t be reached for further comment, also included an added cost of 25 percent for each participant.

?Employers with generous benefit packages, such as municipalities, have the potential for abuse of civil unions and thus a higher percentage than the general population,? he wrote. ?Especially if there are medical problems with the new ?spouse.?

That is the reason for the 25 percent load on the spouse costs. One $100,000 claim could wipe out that estimate.?

Just two in Peoria

Springfield officials say they checked with other local governments ? Sangamon County, Decatur, Peoria, Champaign and Bloomington ? and found that the most civil union participants are in Peoria, where there are two.

Decatur, which also is self-insured, started providing benefits to spouses of employees in civil unions last summer after the new state law took effect.

Decatur city manager Ryan McCrady said the city didn?t have an actuarial study done to see how much the extra benefits would cost.

?We assume the cost per life covered is the same as a person getting married or having children, taking on other dependents,? he said.

So far, only one person in Decatur has requested benefits as part of a civil union, McCrady said. Each person covered by the insurance plan costs about $650 a month, a cost that is shared by the employee and the city, he said.

Focus on fairness

Ward 5 Ald. Sam Cahnman said Martin?s explanation for how he reached his estimate makes no sense.

He questioned why national census data was used, rather than local data, and pointed out that Martin provides no explanation of why there?s more chance that civil unions would be abused in order to obtain? health benefits than marriages.

?The actuary appears to be covering his derriere, so there?s no way the costs could exceed his inflated projection,? Cahnman said. ?He has done that, but at no service to the city.? ?

Martin said he would further explain his rationale after preparing the revised estimate.

Ward 3 Ald. Doris Turner, who also continues to question the actuary?s calculations, said the main focus should remain on fairness.

?There is a state law that says individuals who are in a civil union are entitled to the same benefits as those afforded spouses,? she said. ?Without exception, I believe that the law requires the city to provide the same level of benefits to civil union partners as for married employees.?

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Tuesday?s meeting not open to public

Springfield?s Joint Labor/Management Health Care Committee will meet Tuesday morning to discuss whether to reverse its previous decision not to provide benefits to spouses of employees in civil unions.

The city says the committee?s meetings are not open to the public because they deal with collective bargaining issues.

?The committee functions as part of the collective bargaining process,? wrote Mark Cullen, Springfield corporation counsel.

?The meetings of the committee are negotiations in the same way that the city bargains with collective bargaining units about all other employee benefits.?

The 12-member committee, which was created in 2002, is the policy-making body for Springfield?s employee health insurance coverage. It is made up of five union members, two retirees, two aldermen and three city managers.

Source: http://www.sj-r.com/carousel/x735288238/Civil-union-expense-estimate-based-on-national-census-actuary-says

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