Council adopts phased changes to employee health plan after staff warning on reserves

City of Laredo elected leaders on July 1 adopted a revised employee health insurance package and a plan to phase in premium and benefit changes after city staff and consultants warned the plan’s reserve is near depletion.

Why it matters: Human resources and outside consultants said that medical and prescription cost trends, combined with a year of unusually large claims, left the city’s self‑insured fund with insufficient reserves unless the city takes corrective action.

Human resources director Linda Teneyto told council the city must “do something to our plan this year” because otherwise “next year at this time, we're not gonna have the funding to sustain that program.” Teneyto presented staff recommendations developed with consultant Gallagher and the city’s broker to reprice…