SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (WICS) — The Springfield City Council held a special meeting today to approve an increase in health care premiums for city employees.

Retired city employees will see their health care cost be increased by 3%, but officials say their work is not done as they will try to convince them to switch over to a high deductible health care plan.

Currently, a popular health care plan with retired employees is one with low deductibles and higher monthly payments. However, officials want retired employees to switch over to a new health care plan with higher deductibles but lower monthly payments. City union representative Mike Alwood said last week this could save families thousands of dollars.

Ward 2 Alderman Roy Williams added the city needs to do a better job educating retirees about the high deductible plan and is willing to utilize city departments to help.

“The retiree piece could appear to be expensive, to be on the expensive side. But I think if we educate our retirees, they can understand the benefit of taking the higher package,” Williams said.

The city currently covers a majority of healthcare costs for city employees, so a switch could save the city money as well.

This plan is scheduled to start in 2025. This agreement marks a compromise; an actuarial report recommended a 25% increase; city officials capped it at 3%.

The city council also voted in favor of raising health care premiums by 1% for active city employees.