During the informal portion of the Joplin city council meeting last night, we got an idea of whether medical costs for city employees increased and how much in 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Kim Wixson, Vice President and Health Consultant for the Segal Group, laid out the details Monday night.

“We generally did not see any impact of COVID on the prescription drug side except in some ways, increasing costs with vaccines and things of that nature with people getting those, increased the cost. And you can see that went up 17.8%.”

Wixson also noted that medical costs for the city decreased six point five percent in 2021 due to people unwilling to visit doctors’ offices, likely out of fear of catching COVID-19.

Last year the city of Joplin spent just over $6.2 million dollars on medical expenses covering 491 employees.