Omaha fire union running own health plan a 'radical shift’

http://www.omaha.com/news/metro/omaha-fire-union-running-own-health-plan-a-radical-shift/article_cd710620-41d6-5e78-8ca6-9a9a53384f74.html

POSTED: MONDAY, APRIL 6, 2015 12:30 AM
By Roseann Moring / World-Herald staff writer

The City of Omaha is preparing to get out of the business of providing health insurance for more than 600 of its employees.

And the city’s fire union wants to get into the health insurance business.

In the latest round of labor negotiations, the union went in trying to avoid health care cuts. To meet that goal, it proposed a change that’s unique for the City of Omaha: Run its own health care fund.

Under the proposal, the fire union would take the money that the city and firefighters currently pay toward premiums and create an insurance fund run by the union. It’s a critical component of a tentative contract agreement that the city and the union reached last month.

FULL story at link.