Last week, the Town of Webster, in partnership with the Town of Douglas and the Dudley Charlton Regional School District, solicited and awarded a bid for health insurance coverage for retirees. This regional partnership gives these municipalities more purchasing power when dealing with health insurance companies. The Town has now joined with Aenta Insurance to provide insurance coverage for retirees at an over 10% decrease in premium costs. This is an over $50,000 savings to the Town annually. In addition to this, the plan design benefits are improved for town retirees. This is a win-win-win for town retirees, your Town government and you as a tax payer. Town retirees will be hearing from Retiree First—a retiree health insurance service company—shortly with information regarding the new plans.
This $50,000 savings is in addition to the $340,000 savings the Town experienced July 1, 2019 when this same municipal regional partnership (named the Massachusetts Strategic Health Group) bid out and received reduced premium rates for active municipal employees. We thank all the municipal employees and employee unions for their partnership in making this happen. The Mass Strategic Health Group will continue to work to reduce health insurance costs through active management of health cost drivers. Additionally, the group will be applying for a State-wide regionalization grant to further bring savings to the Town of Webster. If you have any questions, please call the Town Administrator’s Office at 508-949-3800 ext. 4000.