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Labor and Personnel MMA pushes for health plan design powers
Speaking at the Local Government Advisory Commission meeting on Feb. 10, Needham Town Manager Kate Fitzpatrick made the case that cities and towns should be free to remove health insurance plan design from collective bargaining.
Plan design refers to the out-of-pocket co-pays and deductibles that employees pay for prescription drugs, surgical procedures and routine medical office visits, for example.
The state has the authority to make plan design changes without being subject to collective bargaining, but local governments are required to get all municipal unions to agree to increases in co-pays and deductibles before they can be implemented.
The MMA supports legislation filed by Rep. Stephen Kulik (H. 1073) that would take health insurance plan design out of the collective-bargaining process.
Fitzpatrick, addressing Lt. Gov. Tim Murray, acknowledged that taking plan design out of collective bargaining is a sensitive subject. But she argued that, at a time when cities and towns are facing unprecedented fiscal strife, saving money on health insurance could soften the substantial service cuts and layoffs that communities are facing over the next 18 months.
Because co-pays and deductibles tend to be very low for municipal employees, Fitzpatrick said, health insurance rates are generally higher than what the state pays through the Group Insurance Commission. She estimated that cities and towns could see a reduction in health insurance premiums of at least 10 percent if their co-pays and deductibles were similar to those for state employees.
Fitzpatrick said co-pays and deductibles paid by municipal employees are generally well below those of private sector employees.
At the MMA Annual Meeting in January, the MMA members adopted a new standing policy on health insurance. The following passage from the policy summarizes the MMA’s position on plan design:
Labor and Personnel MMA pushes for health plan design powers
MMA pushes for health plan design powers
Speaking at the Local Government Advisory Commission meeting on Feb. 10, Needham Town Manager Kate Fitzpatrick made the case that cities and towns should be free to remove health insurance plan design from collective bargaining.
Plan design refers to the out-of-pocket co-pays and deductibles that employees pay for prescription drugs, surgical procedures and routine medical office visits, for example.
The state has the authority to make plan design changes without being subject to collective bargaining, but local governments are required to get all municipal unions to agree to increases in co-pays and deductibles before they can be implemented.
The MMA supports legislation filed by Rep. Stephen Kulik (H. 1073) that would take health insurance plan design out of the collective-bargaining process.
Fitzpatrick, addressing Lt. Gov. Tim Murray, acknowledged that taking plan design out of collective bargaining is a sensitive subject. But she argued that, at a time when cities and towns are facing unprecedented fiscal strife, saving money on health insurance could soften the substantial service cuts and layoffs that communities are facing over the next 18 months.
Because co-pays and deductibles tend to be very low for municipal employees, Fitzpatrick said, health insurance rates are generally higher than what the state pays through the Group Insurance Commission. She estimated that cities and towns could see a reduction in health insurance premiums of at least 10 percent if their co-pays and deductibles were similar to those for state employees.
Fitzpatrick said co-pays and deductibles paid by municipal employees are generally well below those of private sector employees.
At the MMA Annual Meeting in January, the MMA members adopted a new standing policy on health insurance. The following passage from the policy summarizes the MMA’s position on plan design:
“Paying for health insurance is a major financial burden for virtually every employer in America, both public and private, driven in large part by underlying medical costs that greatly exceed general inflation. In Massachusetts, cities and towns are especially burdened by a state law that requires any change to health insurance to be collectively bargained.
“State government has exempted itself from this requirement and has no such obligation to bargain contribution levels or plan design changes such as higher co-pays, deductibles, tiered networks and similar steps. Because of this double standard in the law, cities and towns have seen their health insurance costs increase at a faster rate than the state’s, due to the greater difficulty in making plan design or other changes.
“It is the strong position of the MMA that all cities and towns must have the same level of authority as the state government in decisions regarding health insurance for their employees. This underlying reform is essential in order to provide municipalities with the management authority and flexibility that is necessary to ensure that all cities and towns can continue to provide vital health insurance benefits in the most effective and affordable manner possible.”
Written by MMA Legislative Director David Baier
