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Naples city employees could pay more for health insurance come October.

Naples City Council on Monday discussed a change to the city's health insurance plan. Though the changes could mean employees pay more for prescriptions, they could save the city more than $1.4 million next year.

The city has seen its health insurance costs increase over the past few years, said city Risk Manager Lori Parsons. That increase, she said, is due to increasing demand, increased medical costs and an aging population. With more than 70 percent of city employees over the age of 40, Parsons said the city needs to shift its emphasis to preventative care.

That shift can be found in an updated version of the city's point of service plan. The new plan would provide all preventative care, such as annual physicals, at no cost to those people enrolled.

While preventative care would be free, employees would have to pay more for outpatient testing. Under the current plan, employees pay 15 percent of the cost and insurance picks up the rest. The revised plan would increase the employee share to 30 percent.

Prescription costs will also see an increase. While the cost of generic prescriptions would stay the same at $10, employees who purchase brand name drugs could be paying $10 to $15 more per prescription, depending on the type of drug.

The decision to increase drug cost is meant to motivate employees to purchase generic, said Gina Ciccia, an insurance consultant the city hired.

In addition to changes to the city's current plan, Ciccia recommended that the city include a consumer driven health plan. This plan has a lower premium, but has higher deductibles and is meant to encourage members to take ownership of their health plan and become more hands on, Parsons said in a report to council.

The consumer-driven health plan works like this: While a member would have a $1,500 deductible, the first $750 of that deductible would be paid for through a reimbursement account. Once the member uses the $750 out of their reimbursement account, they are then responsible for the rest of their medical bills.

The deductible under the consumer-driven plan would vary from $1,500 for a single person to $3,000 for a family, compared to the current deductible of $400 for a single person and $1,000 for a family.

Ciccia said the city would pay more than $4.6 million if it were to switch to the new insurance plans. If council were to decide to stick to the current plan, Ciccia projected the city would pay more than $6 million next year.

This isn't the last discussion council will have about the insurance policy. The next discussion will be in August, said Human Resources Director Denise Perez, during budget discussions.

Employees will be able to enroll in the new programs this summer, with the new plans kicking in Oct. 1.