“Cost efficiencies” in healthcare benefit cuts, as outlined in the Ernst & Young report, would sharply increase the cost of care for tens of thousands of Chicago city workers.

What would it mean for Chicago’s workers if the city found “$103 million in health care cost efficiencies”?

The Chicago Tribune has suggested that the city adopt all of the recommended health care cuts in the Ernst and Young Financial and Strategic Reforms report saving the city a total of $103 million.  This is what that would look like for city workers:

The cuts would not be shared equally because some of them only apply to certain plans or to people who are married or have children. Forty-three percent of the predicted savings would come from families and PPO holders. The most common type of worker household is a family on a PPO.  

On average, a typical household would have an increase of $1,396 a year.

Here are some examples for increased costs for certain types of households:

**Dependent coverage savings is predicated on the assumption that people will drop coverage as a result of the cost increase.  So families would either see these additional costs or lose coverage for their children altogether.

In addition to the premium costs that city workers would pay that are outlined above, the city would switch to plans with higher copays, deductibles, and out of pocket maximums resulting in potentially thousands more dollars for health care coming out of Chicago worker’s pockets. 

The proposal also calls for non-union workers to pay an incremental $1,374 more a year for their health care, in addition to the above increases, as they would be paying a higher percentage of the premium in addition to the increased premium costs outlined above.

The cost “efficiencies” in cutting healthcare benefits for city workers will result in decreased access to regular, preventative healthcare, and increased financial burden that will reduce their engagement with the local economy.