JACKSON, Miss. — A north Mississippi city is revising its health insurance plan to let municipal employees buy coverage for one other adult, including a same-sex partner.
Starkville Mayor Parker Wiseman said Friday that the new insurance plan is an attempt to save money – not to make a political statement.
“It’s a much better policy and offers broader more flexible options for employees,” Wiseman told The Associated Press in a phone interview.
Wiseman said elected officials review the municipal insurance plan every year as part of the budget-writing process. Aldermen approved the plan Tuesday, and it becomes available Oct. 1, the first day of the city’s new fiscal year.
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Starkville provides insurance for each municipal employee, which costs the city of about $390 per employee each month. Until now, an employee could purchase coverage for other people, but the only option was a full family plan that would cost the employee about $600 a month.
The new plan, still with Blue Cross-Blue Shield of Mississippi, keeps the full family plan as an option but includes other, less expensive options: Adding one adult for $348 or unlimited children for $269 a month.
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He said, for example, that a municipal worker could purchase coverage for a best friend who lives down the street and is uninsured.
Earlier this year, Starkville became the first Mississippi municipality to adopt a resolution saying the it would not tolerate any form of discrimination, including bias against LGBT citizens. Since then, at least six other cities have adopted similar resolutions.
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