City Commission - Special Meeting

We're going to wait for Carmen. Everybody good to wait for Carmen?

I hear one, two, three, four, five. Holy, there he is. all right great all right all right madam madam clerk good to go mr attorney good to go mr mayor good to go colleagues on the commission good to go yes staff all righty all right all right good afternoon meeting date wednesday august 26 2026 at 5 p.m commission chambers 500 southwest 109 avenue roll call madam clerk thank you if everybody will please rise for the invocation Would anybody like to give the invocation? All right, let's bow our heads. Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for granting us the gift of life, the gift of family, the gif

Any objections to the Mayor's recommendations? Seeing no objections, the mayor still has the floor. Mr. Mayor, go ahead and call the first company. Which is the first company that's been lined up?

I would like to know if any changes have been made in the medications because the copayments are not real for the medications. But I used to pay $30, I'm paying $87 as a copayment. That's what I want to know if we have been approved for.

Any other commissioners have any questions before I say anything? Yes, sir. Commissioner Saldea is the other floor.

Yeah, did they have, did you guys have anything, I mean, I know there was an increase of 2.5%. Any changes that you guys are doing?

Yeah, I know United is a good insurance. It's just that... the program or the package that you get. And the one we have is NHP, right? Is that the one we have? Correct. And then there's any other one besides NHP?

Okay. But do you have another one other than NHP?

And what would be the difference between that one and NHP?

Thank you. How many employees do we cover here in the city of Sweetwater?

Okay. I have a, you know, I'll give you a good example of my wife. She's, what do you call it? Diabetics. Diabetics. And to be able to get that medicine, I mean, she's going through hell. You've got to call the doctor and one of the commissioners also. Yes, I have to take me. And then we got the same doctors. And it's a headache just to get a medicine that used to be less headache than this one. You got to get an approval for the doctor. And then you got to call it in and going back and forth and back and forth. And it was not like it used to be. Because I remember when you guys came in, you g

True. I mean, I'm going to agree with you on that. Thank you.

All right. Pleasure. Commissioner Esu, do you mind if I say something before you? You know what? Go ahead. Go ahead. Go ahead.

I'm gonna mention it and then you go ahead. Go ahead, go ahead. So United, I can't be any happier with you guys. I'm just, I have to make it public. I'm just a father of a newborn, a week old. Everything was so small with United. We have little gaps when it comes to the monitors for the diabetes. I don't know how you call the diabetes older than 40, whatever, something, diabetes. And we have itches with the monitors, stuff like that, but you guys covered it. The program, awesome. I thought it was a scam. And to be honest with you, You do what the program tells you to do, and you get the Visa g

All right. Anybody else wish to say anything before I go? No? No? Okay. So it sucks that you guys are going to be the first ones because everybody else gets to cheat. What is the copayment for an ER visit? Ooh, everybody starts cheating and start making their notes. I know there's four people in this room that know the answers to that.

$100. $100. Make sure that they do that. And let me ask you a question and an urgent care.

I understand. Okay. Um, Outpatient surgery.

I'm sorry, say it again slowly, speaking to my good ear.

So for the employees outpatient is $500, correct?

We, we get a different plan than the employees, which I don't necessarily agree with. I think the employees should get the same plan. We get it by the way, if anybody wants to make that recommendation, I'm all for it. You're going to get a yes vote for me. Um, all right. Surgery and they got to stay in the hospital.

So outpatient is $500, but if they're in the hospital, they only got to pay $250. Okay. Good.

So that's awesome. My only issue is we are the stewards of the city, and there's a lot of employees that are very unhappy with you guys. Up here, we get to make decisions based on numbers and budgets and past experiences. This gentleman has a little bit of experience in insurance. Not too much, like 36 years. What does he know? So we obviously take advice and counsel. Those of us that have been sitting on this dais long enough

I almost want to run you for office. So here's another question for you. Sure. People who are very dear, near and dear to me, who suffer from diabetes, well, in order for them to wake up the next day and not die, right, they got to take that insulin. And I'm hearing you guys aren't covering the insulin. I've heard this from commissioner his commissioner his wife who's by the way is the real commissioner this is just a facade commissioner who's my second wife my wife allows it we have a very open-minded questions asked she said oh you're like my son i go no no wife i'm your husband so what are

I'm hearing you. She's still the politician that I want to run for office. You're doing OK. All right. But when I hear my colleagues talk about their personal experience with their lack of ability to acquire insulin. and I'm hearing what you're saying, two plus two kind of equals 17 there.

for you we understand that it can be complex and overwhelming sometimes but we're happy to help yeah we have a dedicated team and we'll we'll absolutely look at each individual whether they're part of this group separate group we're going to look at those and bring resolution very quickly well if i were you too just in my closing i would be a little proactive and i'd speak to that fine lady right there and leave your information to get in contact with this gentleman and that fine lady over there Because I don't think you're going to be able to convince him unless you guys problem solve. That's

Yes, what do you guys have for an employee or for the city of Sweetwater for the cancer patients?

Thank you. Thank you. Any other commissioners wishing to speak? Mr. Mayor, you have the floor.

Thank you for, I'm sorry. Thank you for clearing that. Thank you.

Hi, Yoli. Yoli, you know that the main issues that I think a lot of people has, it was the cost of the co-payment. You know, there was double. We're paying double for the co-payment of the mitigation. That's a fact. I mean, it's not like we're making it up. It's true.

Commissioner Saudis. I'm sorry, just because you, that on that point, is that with every company, the increase of what you just said?

Yes, is that for all of these? Is that for every company that's doing that? Not only United, everybody increasing because of the?

Before you answer, I don't think that's for our people to answer. I think that's for this bid. If you guys agree. Now, if you want to ask, you can ask. I'm just giving you my opinion.

You don't want Yoli to say that. Yeah, that's fair. So, Mr. Mayor, Yoli and – Yeah, they're good until the next – United, would you like to give a closing argument?

At this point, Mr. Mayor, who would you like to call up next?

No, I'm sure we do. I am sure you do, too, and I'm here to help. Any commissioners wishing to speak on this item? Yes, Commissioner. Commissioner Idania Iannou.

Yes, hi, Louris. Hi, how are you? My question is this, because I see that you have right here next to it, it says alternative 2.1. That's not the same that we used to have, is it? Okay, right on the say AFMIC, it says alternate 2.1. Is that the same?

Any other commission wishing to speak on this item? Speak to admin?

Yes. Commissioner Saladius? Yes. Yeah, what's the difference between this package that you're bringing to us now and the one that we have before?

Okay, thank you. That's $500 through the whole year?

Any other commissioners? Sure. Commissioner Isidro Ruiz. Hi, Lord. Yes.

I'm going back to my pregnancy period. Okay. I'm still processing.

So is it a boy or a girl? It's a girl. Daddy's little girl. I'm dying to go back.

You just mentioned it right now. You said diagnostics were $2.

Perfect. That's one question. The second question is... Most drugs covered. Does that include weight loss?

So we're going to go with Manjaro instead of weight loss, fertility, erectile dysfunction. No COVID.

Commissioner Saldias. Yeah, what about the GLP-1 patients? That's .

Yeah, but it has to go through the doctors, through the whole process and the whole thing, right?

Thank you. Does any other commissioner wish to speak on this item?

Commissioner Reynold-Bure. Just a quick question. Yes. For the vision and dental?

That won't be through them because I see only three of them here. How would we get vision and dental? Yes, so we would have to go either with United, Florida Blue. If we were to go with Ahmed, I'd say, we would have to choose one of these three.

Okay, so I'm sorry, through the chair. Hold on, let him finish.

Yeah, no, no, I just saw that, you know, United Health has, here, I've met, didn't have color-coordinated. Guardian, I'm guessing, is curative, or? No. No, it's just separately? Okay, just going through the colors, I thought it was the same thing. Okay, no, it was just a question I had.

So, Jolly. You don't have to fill it up. So basically, UnitedHealthcare is providing medical, dental, and vision. Correct. And that's the only out of the four of them that is provided the three services, right? Thank you.

All right, so if nobody else has any questions, I'm going to ask a few questions. Go ahead. Commissioner Baiciu, you have anything? No. Still processing, all right. So I'm going to ask the question, why'd you break up with us?

You know, I'm glad you asked. You're right, we did break up with you. Because you gave us a 35% increase. So, I'm going to ask you several questions. And I think you know my style. I'm not afraid to ask the tough questions because our job is to be the advocates for our employees. And if we don't fight for our employees, then... So, the first question, before you answer that one, this fine gentleman said if we... If we change, it's going to be a big arroz con mango, and it's going to disrupt things. So how would you respond to that to us? Not to him, to us.

So my next question is, Why did you guys give us a 35% increase and force our hand in firing?

Well, it wasn't the carrier that did it, it's that young lady sitting right there that did it.

So what you're saying is the 56% reduction that Yoli did with our employees. Now we're more enticing and it's better for you to bid now because we're not so toxic. Is that accurate?

Well, if you would've hired Yoli, you probably could've done that. We love Yoli. So, yeah, she's all right. So I was a big advocate of admin. because I've been with the city a little while, two years. And it's most certainly been a roller coaster ride with the ups and downs. So within your final statement, unless anybody else has any questions, I'm just gonna ask one more question. Why should we stay with you and what is going to stop you guys from raising the rates back to the reason why we terminated you and what could you do to help us to make sure that never happens again?

Hold on, hold on, hold on. I want my question answered.

What is going to preclude you from raising our rates again? What are you going to do to help us ensure that you can help our employees not have the exposures that we had before? What can you help our organization do to make sure that our employees don't have that exposure, and why should we stay with you?

Yes. Thank you very much. Mr. Mayor, you wanted to call Yoli to do what?

Come up to the microphone, please. Got a lot of people watching on TV.

The mayor said for the primary care, it's $10 visit. So the copay for primary is $25, and the specialist is $50.

All right. Thank you. Would Abbott like to make a closing statement?

So one last question to have med. If you guys can step up to the microphone. One last question for you guys. If one of our employees is visiting Washington, DC, and they have an emergency visit for kidney stones, what happens?

Okay. All right. Does anybody else have any other questions? Do you need a closing statement?

Thank you very much. Stick around. We may have some more questions. Mr. Mayor, what's next? Curative?

You're the next contestant on The Price is Right.

You don't need to pause. You have the floor.

First, we'd like you to finish, and then we'll open it up for questions.

All right, take a breath. Take a breath. So we're going to go ahead and give you plenty of time. All right? Commissioners wishing to speak on this item. Commissioner Saldizio. That was a lot.

Let me tell you something. This is, thank you, it was good. I mean, I have so many questions, you answered them all. Really? I mean, yes, yes. You guys came very, very aggressive. Your company is the first time I heard, I never heard about this company. Now, what city are they using this company?

Are they the only one? Yeah. Okay. South Miami?

Now, your zero doctor visit, zero pocket cost, I mean $260,000 saving for the city. I mean this is a minus 8.3% saving for the city. I'm speechless, you know, you did a very good job. I mean, I had a lot of answers, but you were going so fast, and questions, and your answer, I mean, that line that you were talking about, that you can talk to somebody, is that, I mean, you went over it very fast. Is that in Spanish and English?

The other questions that I have is the based visit with 120 days on the 5K, Can you explain a little bit in slow motion on that?

Thank you. Any other commissioners wish to speak? Commissioner Idaia on the other floor.

Yes. I have a question. No, go ahead. I'm a little concerned about the cash card, how it works. Yes. For instance, if I need to go to the hospital because I have an emergency. And the hospital, like Baptist, is the hospital that I go to all the time, and I know because I spoke to them already. They do accept the cash card, but they're not a provider. Not yet. Which is kind of weird to me because I found on your website that Dr. Hospital is a provider, and Dr. Hospital belongs to Baptist, which is kind of confusing, but maybe that's the way it is. But my main concern is this, if I have an emerg

So basically, the cash card is like, for instance, like if I'm going to do some procedure, which is something that you schedule ahead of time, how long would it take for the company to approve the money for the cash card so we can have the procedure to be done?

Any other commissioners wish to speak? Sure.

Commissioner Isidro Ruiz. Hi, ma'am. How are you? First of all, kudos to you guys, every single one of you. This is NASA to me. I'm not good at math. So what I've been looking at, so I'm familiar with every single one of you guys, not to kill you. Of course, it makes sense. So we are here trying to get the best coverage for the money, right? And at the same time, trying to get under those circumstances, so the best reliable company. We're making decision for like almost 200 employees, right?

And every single one of them has different conditions, situations. We have special education kids, we have cancer patients, we have diabetes. Like everybody else, like every single one of your customers, right? So when I look at Keto Youth, so I didn't do a research, I just went over it. And like you said, you're the underdog, right?

Good leadership, which I believe you're a good leader.

They can control the market. Just giving the time. But really quick, I just went through a, And I found three little things that are really concerns. Which ones? A strict when it comes to meds, making members follow exact pre-authorization on pharmacy guidelines. Number two, a lot of complaints about extensive mental health care needs. Number three, trouble finding local in-network doctors. or may your pharmacist that accept the plan. I was looking through your pharmacies. Big pharmacies like CVS and Walgreens, everybody's used to it. And unfortunately, just the PPO max have access to CVS and

So my question is, do you, based on your professional knowledge and skills, which I really believe you have, all these complaints from a bunch of customers are because you're like immature when it comes to business, relatively new? What do you think all these complaints are about?

Don't you think that's a big hustle in order to get medications? Like it's a big hustle in order to get medications? You mean hassle. I mean hassle, I'm sorry. I won't be able to get the medication from CVS or Walgreens if I really need it. I have to go to that process in order to get my meds.

Any other commission wishing to speak on this item? All right, I have a few questions. I always like to let everybody speak first. So we gave you plenty of time to speak, and that was good. But then the longer you stayed up there, the more difficult questions were asked, and that was bad. So if anybody thinks that they got a leg up, you need more time, you let us know, we'll give you more time. We'll make sure we grill you like we grilled her. What is biosimilar? Never heard that word before.

There's my question. So if my doctor prescribes something, that's what my doctor wants to give me, your insurance plan is gonna say, no, you gotta take this biosimilar prescription. Is that accurate?

You guys would always want to recommend a generic drug just based on cost. Is that accurate? And then your gallery testing, is that a BRCA test?

Got it. So you have, your business is, you guys have been in business for four years, two years out of state, two years in. Similar to Commissioner Ruiz, I also looked at your reviews. We all have good reviews and bad reviews. But when it comes to health care, I tend to want to pay attention. Curious question, you said your husband receives a certain medication, so is it safe to assume that you and your husband have curative insurance? And you've had a phenomenal experience with cure. Never, not one negative instance with curative. Is that accurate?

Yeah. So just one thing. I usually follow my gut. My gut is usually right. And usually when something sounds too good to be true, it usually is. I see that your company's most certainly a disruptor. But maybe it's the new thing that keeps me from, I'm not big on price, I don't care how much it costs. I'm not gonna put a price tag on our employees, whether it costs, whether it's a $300,000 savings or we're paying $500,000 more a year, I could care less.

Yeah, you mentioned that. Commissioner Saladi is here before.

Yes, HR. I mean, did you guys check to see if this company have the, you know, they're in a network, they have their own doctors. Did you guys do a search with this company to see if they can, if I can use my doctor to them?

Okay, I was going to ask you the percentage, 90% match?

Any other commissioners wishing to speak? I'm sorry, ma'am. Probably you went through that part and I missed you somewhere. So the $0 in network price, you got to go to initial health checkup, right, within 120 days. You mentioned it or you didn't?

So if there is a pre-existing condition, does the $0 in there applies?

Thank you, ma'am. Any other commissions wish to speak on this item? All right, ma'am, you have a, you don't need a closing statement, do you? You said a lot.

Any procedure that you have to have done, would you have to schedule? Is something that is going to be done at the moment going to be scheduled? Any outpatient procedure or surgery, whatever, you need to call the navigator to be approved?

But I have to go to the hospital first so they can give you the estimate, right?

Because now we're talking about estimate. Before, you don't have to have estimate. You have to show your ID, so that's what I'm saying. So let's say... You have to go to the hospital first to give you the estimate?

No, I am clear on that. I just want to know how the procedure was. If it was my doctor, then my doctor would get involved and then I would talk to the navigator, right?

The Florida Blue did not come to present? They're not here.

Through the chair. Commissioner Salda is on the floor. Yes, please, before it gets out of my mind. When you guys compare, I'm trying to get the word, compare this company that just came and the one, the NHB, What's the, is that apples to apples, or what do you guys see there? What, I mean, as experience, what do you see between this company, Curative, and the one we have right now? When you compare both of them, what will be your definition on that?

Yeah. Okay. Through the chair, commissioner. What about pre they have it?

I did check on my medications at the old there on the network. So, but that means that it's still, if we want to make any changes, we have to go to the approval even though it's there. Yes.

Well, let, let, let me say something real quick. Mr. Mayor, if you don't mind, um, to my colleagues on the commission, what I'd like to recommend, um, we have three companies here, three, you know, good companies. You guys are obviously vying for our attention. Um, I would strongly suggest if you guys know the mayor, If the mayor can save a dollar, he will. I would strongly suggest that you guys change your bids and become more aggressive. There's not much time. I guarantee you he will negotiate the hell out of you. He's going to shake your pockets. And if you're not willing to negotiate, you'

Mister Rogers one more question has the police union. Been briefed on just the office. The union's over the store the rest.

Thank you, Mr. Attorney. Do we have a motion for a date certain? Commissioner, are you motioning or you want to speak? No, no, I want to speak something.

Commissioner Reynaldo Rey, you have the floor. So I wanted to make a recommendation to the mayor or Yoli. I Was looking at the plans for vision and dental There's one that's always come up. I'm sure the mayor knows about it because he worked for the county as well the vision plan I'm I met So if we could get probably a quote on that as well, give us a little more options to see what else we have in the network for ourselves. I mean, the dental seems kind of good. I've heard of Guardian, I know VSP and all that stuff, but if we could get a quote on IMED as well, so we could have more options.

All right, we had a motion by Commissioner Emanuel. Do we have a second? Second.

Do you need a roll call? We can just do all in favor say aye. All in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Mr. Mayor, you have the floor.

All right, so we have a meeting scheduled for Monday 5 p.m. All right, so I think that's it. Motion to adjourn.