Abbeville officials encouraging employees, others to get COVID vaccine

As the Delta variant’s grip on Louisiana continues to tighten, officials with the city of Abbeville are encouraging people to get the COVID-19 vaccine.
That is especially true for city employees who have not yet done so, as the effect on the city’s health insurance plan could eventually become too immense.
“We have a rising and threatening variant infection in our community,” Councilman Brady Broussard Jr. said. “It is in our city, our parish and across the nation.”
Broussard said during Tuesday night’s regular council meeting that numbers released earlier in the day by the Louisiana Department of Health cannot be ignored.
“Today, (Louisiana) had 4,725 new cases,” Broussard said on Tuesday. “There were 59 new deaths from that today. There were 2,212 hospitalized because of that variant.
“The not-fully vaccinated citizens (in the state) are more than 90% of those cases.”
Broussard said people need look no further than locally to see the stress being placed on the health care system and its staff.
“To bring this closer to home,” Broussard said, “we have a local hospital, where in a 24-hour period recently, 77 patients went through the emergency room. Fifty percent of those people were COVID positive.
“That is the flame burning around us, right now.”
Mayor Mark Piazza said that the city’s insurance fund is already feeling some of that heat.
“It is eating us up already,” Piazza said. “It’s not going to, it is. It’s a direct reflection on COVID cases from employees, their spouses and family members who haven’t been vaccinated.”
During the meeting, Piazza asked City Clerk-Treasurer Kathy Faulk to repeat what she told him earlier in the day regarding insurance finances.
“We are taking a beating with health insurance claims,” Faulk said. “In the month of July, we paid $245,000 in health insurance claims. That’s a lot more than what goes into that fund.”
Broussard, who chairs the city’s insurance committee, said that is not a path on which the city can continue, at least not without any changes. Full-time employees do not currently pay for health insurance for themselves.
“Employees will get vaccinated if they like the plan of insurance that the city offers right now,” Broussard said, “which is affordable. Unvaccinated employees, who get infected, and are put on a ventilator, will strain the insurance plan and hurt the city budget.”
The city cannot currently mandate that all employees receive the COVID-19 vaccine. Councilman Francis Touchet Jr. suggested the city find a way to reward employees who are vaccinated.
“We can look at different options for that,” Touchet said.
Councilman Francis Plaisance agreed.
“We can’t mandate them to take the vaccine,” Plaisance said, “but we certainly can encourage them.”
City Attorney Ike Funderburk said he will look further into what can and can’t be done in regard to incentives for employees who take the vaccine.
“The EEOC (Equal Employment Opportunity Commission) has said that an employer can have several options to give enticements to people to take it,” Funderburk said. “There’s going to be a group of people, be it for religious reasons or because of health reasons, who are not going to be able to take it. You have to have carve outs for them.
“This is not an easy, one-size-fits all.”
In all, Councilwoman Roslyn White said she understands that some people are apprehensive about the vaccine.
“I have been fully vaccinated since April,” White said. “I didn’t do it for myself. I did it for the people I love. I did it for my mom. I did it for my teammates at Broussard Brothers and my teammates here with the city. I know people have reservations or concerns. I did have my own reservations, but I decided to do it for my community.
“Getting vaccinated is the compassionate thing to do for your community, right now.”