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It should come as no surprise Salem Mayor Kim Driscoll is trying to negotiate her own deal with city unions to bring down the cost of health insurance. Because the kind of aid being offered by the Legislature could be worse than no assistance at all.
The cost of providing health insurance to workers and retirees is a bigger bite out of municipal budgets every year. By one estimate those costs alone could consume a fifth of the average city or town's budget by 2020.
It's consuming most of any normal revenue increases, and has forced more and more communities to look to fees and overrides in order to balance their budgets.
For the last several years municipal officials have been begging the Legislature for something called "plan design," which would give them the same right the state has now to determine the design, including co-pays and deductibles, or the health plans offered their employees.
But once again this spring, the House of Representatives chose to do nothing and the Senate has come up with a complex scheme — aimed primarily at appeasing the public-sec tor unions — which the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation says would hurt more than help cities and towns.
In a letter to legislative leaders this week, MTF President Michael J. Widmer said requiring municipal officials to bargain (and possibly submit to arbitration) over the use of any savings from changes in health coverage "places unnecessary further restrictions on a community's ability to manage health care costs." In fact, he adds, such a mandate "could well lead to higher costs down the road."
With the state under pressure to reduce its own spending, cities and towns are desperate for more flexibility in managing their costs. It's been estimated plan design could save them $100 million in the next fiscal year.
As Widemer bluntly puts it, "The choice is clear: Give cities and towns the tools to manage their health plans and save thousands of jobs, or preserve some form of collective bargaining and guarantee that these teachers and public safety workers will lose their jobs."
