Meridian health trust runs a deficit; trustees ask council for up to $937,926 to cover year-end shortfall

Meridian — City staff and the employee benefits trust’s consultant told the Meridian City Council on Oct. 14 that the city’s self‑insured employee health trust is operating in a deficit and asked the council to provide additional funding to carry the plan through the rest of 2025.

Scott, a consultant with Gallagher, told the council that the trust’s second‑quarter financial filing showed a deficit of $733,063 and that claims through August pushed the plan’s loss ratio to 116.55 percent — meaning claims and administrative costs have exceeded funding by about 16.5 percent so far this year.

The consultant attributed the shortfall primarily to a sharp increase in high‑cost claims, especially cancer cases. “Cancer is the leading diagnosis of those large claimants,” Scott said. He told the council the trust recorded roughly $2.4 million in cancer‑related claims over the past 18 months and that the number of large claimants in 2025 was up about 31 percent compared with the same period in 2024; the cost of those large claims rose about 51 percent.

Why it matters

The trust covers Meridian employees and their dependents. When a self‑insured trust experiences a spike in high‑cost claims, the city — as plan sponsor — faces choices about whether to increase…