Less than two months after the horrific Texas hill country floods that left 117 people dead, heroic first responders in the City of Kerrville are facing an increased bill for their health insurance.
The City Council has voted to increase health insurance costs for city employees, including police officers, firefighters, and paramedics, despite their tireless efforts just weeks ago.
The city is facing a significant budget shortfall due to lost property tax revenue and unexpected recovery costs and with healthcare costs rising across the board have put forward a new proposal which has not gone down well with employees.
For the past 12 years, the highest tier of the city’s PPO plan covered the employee, their spouse and their children for $156 per paycheck. After the increase, the same plan will cost families $326 per paycheck — a monthly increase of $340 in health insurance, local broadcasters KSAT reported.
The new insurance options are a new Health Maintenance Organization (HMO) plan or the existing Preferred Provider Organization (PPO) plan with the increased employee contribution cost.
Currently all employees are on the PPO plan and while the city insists the HMO option would not radically alter coverage, first responders are up in arms about the situation they find themselves in while their recovery efforts continue.
“None of us are trying to be rich,” Kerrville firefighter Micah Booth told KSAT. “We knew that we weren’t going to the day we decided to be a fireman, but we do expect to have basic needs met.”
The city sent KSAT a statement about the new HMO plan and its coverage from providers based on the history of how employees have used their insurance plan.
“Based on utilization data provided by Blue Cross Blue Shield of Texas, City of Kerrville employees and dependents accessed services from 1,156 providers within the BCBSTX PPO,” the email said. “Only 13 providers (1.12%) utilized under the PPO plan would not have been available within the HMO network,” the email said.
Fueled by a powerful mesoscale convective vortex, the storm dropped over 20 inches of rain, causing the Guadalupe River to surge nearly 30 feet in under an hour.
As the floodwaters raged, first responders worked through the pitch-black night, with emergency calls beginning as early as 3:30 a.m.
Rescuers from neighboring communities and even Mexico rushed to assist in the desperate search for survivors. Initial emergency recordings reveal the frantic atmosphere, with cries for help coming from rooftops and debris-filled trees.
In total, at least 117 people died in Kerr County alone, a grim tally that underscores the life-and-death stakes faced by every rescuer.
Over 440 people were pulled from the rising waters, many by helicopter, in a massive effort that continued for days. Despite the lack of a modern flood warning system and widespread communication outages that hampered initial efforts, these first responders continued to comb the riverbanks and wreckage, working relentlessly to find the missing and recover the deceased.
Now, with the immediate emergency phase over, the focus has shifted from community-wide gratitude to cold, fiscal reality.
“There’s so many people that are hanging in for the benefits while we struggle to put food in the fridge and make car payments,” Booth said.
It is yet another reminder of a health insurance system that is struggling to provide good coverage at a reasonable price for Americans.