DeLeo bucks public unions on health
Speaker backs legislation requiring towns to join Group Insurance Commission
House Speaker Robert DeLeo , in a move likely to erode his longheld union support, today vowed to push for legislation that would help rein in municipal health care costs by requiring cities and towns to join the state’s Group Insurance Commission.
“Unless cities and towns can find health insurance at the same or lower cost than the GIC, we should force them to join – bringing them under the more efficient and cost effective state system,” he told lawmakers in a speech after his reelection as speaker.
DeLeo’s comments put him at odds with the state’s public sector unions, who have resisted efforts to deprive them of their collective bargaining rights for health care benefits. Municipalities currently have the option to purchase health care coverage for employees through the Group Insurance Commission, but they can’t unless 70 percent of their unionized employees consent. Since 2007, only 30 cities and towns have joined and almost none recently.
“Our current fiscal climate demands that we move in this direction. I can no longer permit our residents to suffer because we are so slow to progress in this area,” he said. “While I anticipate that there will always be some who will take issue with this approach, notwithstanding years of debate we have yet to hear a better solution to municipal cost control. We must move forward.”
Many mayors have called for the Legislature to give them the power to unilaterally design health care plans for their workers, but lawmakers and Gov. Deval Patrick in the past have been reluctant to cross public sector unions. As recently as last March, DeLeo indicated he was reluctant to strip public sector unions of their collective bargaining rights.
“I think the issue that we’re going to have to try to address is the issue of bargaining rights, and I think that’s the issue we’re all concerned about: are we able to get there while protecting those rights?” DeLeo told the State House News Service.
Separately, DeLeo made clear that all hiring in state government should be based on merit. The speaker, who has become embroiled in the patronage scandal at the state’s Probation Department because he recommended people, including his godson, for jobs there, said the House should do it parts of make sure that all state agencies operate transparently.“We will make clear that all public servants must not only be qualified for their jobs; they must be the most qualified for their jobs,” he said. “And we will also ensure that state hiring authorities understand that we expect that they will serve but one master – the taxpaying public.”