Mesa resumes perk of lifetime medical benefits for longtime city employees

PHOENIX – Mesa, Arizona’s third-largest city, is bringing back the perk of lifetime medical benefits for longtime employees.

To qualify, full-time city workers must complete 20 years of service, including at least 10 consecutive years, before they retire.

All eligible retirees will be able to continue their health insurance coverage, with the city’s stipend.

Mesa covers about 80% of the premium for standard health insurance, while the employee pays 20%.

Candace Cannistraro, director of the Mesa Office of Management and Budget, said Tuesday that cities across the Valley and country are finding it harder to recruit and retain staff, and this is a way to combat that.

“We have a lot of employees who have dedicated a great part of their lives to serving the residents of Mesa, so we want to make sure that those are the employees that are benefiting from this plan,” Cannistraro told KTAR News 92.3 FM.

The benefit currently exists for staff hired before Jan. 1, 2009, but it was cut off to new hires when the East Valley suburb had to trim $62 million from its general fund during the Great Recession. The program will resume on Jan. 1, 2023.

Cannistraro said that when the benefit was halted, the idea was to revisit the policy when the city was in better shape financially.

“This is a good time,” she said. “We feel confident that we can be financially sustainable while continuing this benefit into the future.”

Mesa serves its 500,000 or so residents with about 3,900 full-time employees, 70% of whom were hired after the lifetime coverage program was put on hold.

“The people who were hired that January of 2009 aren’t even eligible for retirement right now, so they actually haven’t been harmed over these years,” Cannistraro noted.

KTAR News 92.3 FM’s Griselda Zetino contributed to this report.

Follow @kstonezone