City employees working without health insurance in Lumberton

LUMBERTON, Miss. (WDAM) - Many City of Lumberton employees are currently working without health insurance. Officials confirmed during Tuesday night’s Board of Aldermen meeting that city employees will have to pay out of pocket for health insurance.

Lumberton Mayor Quincy Rogers said that the city is undergoing major budget, cuts and health insurance was one of them.

“The board took away the health insurance because of monetary constraints," Rogers said. “So you know as for the city, the city is experiencing some issues with our budget so we had to make some cuts,” said Mayor Rogers.

It’s been three months since health insurance was cut, and many in Lumberton are still working day to day without insurance.

Citizens and workers raised questions as to why health insurance is not provided Tuesday night. The purpose for cut backs was to save money and then give city employees raises to help compensate.

At last check, no raises have been given. Although health insurance was eliminated, employees still have vision and dental insurance available to them.

“Started to just eliminate the major medical and go with a vision dental,” said Rogers.

Looking ahead, a special meeting is set for June 18 to talk about the plan for employee pay raises in Lumberton. No location has been set yet.

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