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Editorial - A handle on local health costs Boston Globe Editorial Staff January 9, 2007...In his inaugural address last week, Governor Deval Patrick said "I will ask municipalities to enter into a new partnership with state government." He and the Legislature have an opportunity to advance that goal with a bill that will encourage municipal employees to get their health coverage through the state Group Insurance Commission. The bill, to be filed tomorrow, is a product of a task force comprising municipal leaders, public employee unions, and retiree groups. It would allow cities and towns to get out of the contentious business of having to select and administer health insurance for their employees. They would still be liable to pay the premiums, and the employees' share would be determined by collective bargaining. But they would be able to take advantage of the buying power of the Group Insurance Commission, which provides health coverage to 265,000 state employees, retirees, and their families. The Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation has determined that, between 2001 and 2004, premium increases for local employees were almost double the rate for those covered by the GIC. These inexorable increases put an intolerable burden on cities and towns, detailed in an article in Globe West last week. "It's absolutely killing us," said Marc V. Waldman, treasurer collector of Wellesley, talking about premiums that will probably total one-fifth of the town budget by 2011. People in Massachusetts prize local autonomy, but when it comes to health insurance this fragmentation invites less innovative coverage and higher premiums that crowd out spending on essential municipal service. Starting Jan. 1, all Springfield employees signed up with the GIC as part of the state emergency plan to stave off municipal bankruptcy. Given this developing statewide crisis, the Legislature and governor would be justified in mandating that all cities and towns join the Group Insurance Commission. The bill to be introduced tomorrow is quite mild by comparison. Co sponsored by Representative Rachel Kaprielian of Watertown and Senator Richard Moore of Uxbridge, it would merely give communities the option to join the GIC, as long as representatives of employees and retirees agree. Communities that join would pay a small administrative fee, but they would be spared the burden of having to choose an insurance plan or negotiate rates with insurers. A few unions are withholding their support, perhaps nostalgic for the days when health insurance was an affordable fringe benefit in any municipal labor agreement. But medicine has gotten more complex, more effective, and much more expensive over the last couple of decades. The expertise of the Group Insurance Commission should maintain comprehensive health insurance as valued compensation for municipal work. |