IS SHREVEPORT HEALTH CARE BOARD GOING TO GIVE THE SHAFT TO RETIRED FIREFIGHTERS AND WK?

If you attended the meeting on Wednesday, Aug 17, of Shreveport's Board of Trustees (Board) of the Health Care Trust Fund, that certainly is the impression you would leave with.

From the "get go," it was obvious that the train had left the station and in so doing left behind city retirees and the WK Heath System.

Like the aborted effort last year, the Board is considering a change in plans for the health insurance plans to be offered to city employees and city retirees.

This time around, the Board hopes to approve a recommendation to the Shreveport City Council at a special meeting on Sept. 7.

The meeting started on a bad note, and from there it went downhill.

Initially, many of the city employees and retirees had little notice of this public meeting.

How long the meeting had been planned and then noticed to the trustees is the real issue, not compliance with the 24-hour requirement of meeting notice.

The second problem was the location of the meeting in the mayor's conference room. The large conference table was reserved for the trustees, insurance persons and city officials. That meant that the large crowd of more than 50 had to stand in the room.

The agenda listed items for discussion. Unlike a city council agenda, there were no attachments for prior review by the public.

A bound handout was distributed to the trustees and city officials, but not available to the general public. Put this down as the third hiccup.

Next up on the list of "What else can go wrong?" were the attitudes of Chief Administrative Officer Henry Whitehorn and interim Chief Financial Officer Kasey Brown, who chaired the meeting.

Whitehorn exuded the personality of an angry bear throughout the meeting. He challenged on several occasions a well-informed trustee who made several valid points.

Brown followed the lead of Whitehorn.

He was not as rude and gruff as the Father Bear whose porridge must have been eaten before the meeting. However, he tried several times unsuccessfully to gloss over many inconsistencies in the prior actions of the committee, the meeting minutes and the topics under discussion.

What was perhaps the nadir of the meeting was what appeared to be a nap(s) by Shreveport Mayor Adrian Perkins during the meeting. A picture of his head titled back in nap mode is circulating on social media.

Although very few meaningful details on costs were revealed, a proposed three-tier, health-care insurance plan was the recommendation of the insurance professionals. Whitehorn and Brown were completely behind this plan.

The first tier was to utilize Ochsner and Christus health-care systems. The second tier was WK. The third tier was an open network.

It was clear from the discussions that the premiums would be the cheapest for the first tier and escalating thereafter. However, the deductibles and co-pays were not addressed.

The focus of the three-tier plan is to push city employees and retirees away from the WK system. That means they would need to abandon long-term relationships with health-care providers. For retirees, this obviously creates major challenges and concerns.

It’s a known fact that the costs to the system of older members are more expensive. This is especially true of retired firefighters who were exposed to smoke, chemicals and other dangers during their service.

The recommendations of the insurance advisors were focused on the cost of providing health care for retirees. There was no acknowledgement of their prior service, much less any moral obligation of city government to provide for those who had previously rendered invaluable service to the community.

The firefighters' union president reminded the Board that firemen always answered the bell without consideration of long-term health concerns.

She stressed that any plan adopted should be inclusive, equitable, accessible and affordable.

A quiet, but very noticeable, attendee at the meeting was WK President/CEO Jerry "Jaf" Fielder. He was accompanied by Shreveport's former fire chief Scott Wolverton, who is now a WK employee.

Although not brought out at the meeting, the fact that city council member Jerry Bowman Jr., an employee of Ochsner, is a board member was a topic of discussion by many who attended the meeting.

Hopefully, sanity will prevail, and soon. At this late date in an election year, the Board would be wise to continue the same insurance plan for city employees and retirees. And then to start work much earlier next year in a more transparent fashion.