Millinocket may oust 1 life insurance plan

MILLINOCKET — The Town Council on Thursday will consider terminating one of the two life insurance plans the town provides to current and retired employees. The meeting will be held at 4:30 p.m. in the municipal building.

Town Manager Paul Bird said eliminating the life insurance coverage now provided by UNUM did not mean employees would have no life insurance. Employees would still have life insurance coverage under their health insurance plan.

During union negotiations, town officials learned that there was double coverage in some insurance areas, such as life insurance. “All we are doing is getting rid of the redundancy,” Bird said.

By eliminating the life insurance duplication, the town would save a minimum of $16,000 a year, said the Millinocket town manager. Bird said there may be additional savings from eliminating other redundancies.

For Millinocket, which is facing some tight financial times, the savings could translate into saving a position in the future, or the town could consider providing improved medical coverage in the future, said Bird.

During a special meeting last week, Town Attorney Dean Beaupain admitted that employees both current and retired would not have the same life insurance coverage they do today if the UNUM policy is terminated.

“Nowhere did you say you were going to insure employees for twice their salary,” Beaupain said, pointing to the town’s personnel policy and its union contracts. The town attorney said the documents did not require the town to insure its retirees.

A public hearing about a proposal requiring town employees to pay a portion of their health insurance hasn’t been scheduled.

The plan outlined by Beaupain on behalf of Bird last week proposes that employees and retirees contribute 10 percent of the cost of their health insurance each year for the next three years, which means by the year 2001, employees and retirees would be paying 30 percent. Currently, the town pays 100 percent of the cost of health insurance for its employees and its retirees.

Bird said the first of two public hearings has been delayed so he could recalculate his proposal. The manager said he is proposing that employees and retirees pay a portion of the costs for only family plans, but not for single plans. No date has been set for the council to consider the health insurance contribution proposal.