Mayor, City Unions Reach Health Insurance Agreement

Medford City, School Employees to Join GIC

Story Updated 1:41PM Wednesday, August 17, 2011

Mayor Michael McGlynn with union officials in his office on Tuesday.

– Allison Goldsberry

After years of watching ever rising health insurance costs continue to take larger pieces of the budget, Medford’s city and school employees will join a state group insurance plan in an effort to save money. Mayor Michael McGlynn and union officials announced Tuesday an agreement to transfer all of the city’s health insurance subscribers to the Group Insurance Commission (GIC). According to Mayor McGlynn, the move will result in “tremendous savings” to employees and the city.

“This is the single biggest impact to the budget in the history of this community,” said McGlynn.

The Mayor and union officials agreed to join the plan for six and a half years, which McGlynn said will result in a savings of $4.2 million each year for the city. City and school employees should also see a $6.5 million savings in premiums over the six and a half year period.

According to the agreement, in the first two years of the plan, the city will contribute 80% of the premium or cost of employee health plans while the employees will contribute 20%. In the next three years the contributions shift to 85% and 15% and finally 82.5% and 17.5% in the last year.

After everyone is transferred to the GIC, the agreement says the city is to provide life insurance and dental insurance benefits that are equal to or better than what was provided prior to the transfer. For the duration of the agreement the city will cover 50% of life and dental benefits while subscribers will also cover half.

The agreement also establishes a “public employees coalition” composed of representatives from each of the unions such as the police, teachers, and firefighters. Going forward the city would negotiate with the coalition rather than each individual union. This part of the agreement was subject to the approval of the City Council, who approved the measure during their meeting on Tuesday night.

Representatives from each of the city’s unions all signed the agreement on Tuesday. Mayor McGlynn thanked the unions for their “great leadership” on finding a solution to rising health insurance costs and said a “cooperative spirit” helped bring about a consensus.

“In these difficult times, the cooperation in which the unions and the administration worked together to move this important initiative forward is a first in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts since passage of Municipal Health Care Reform. This agreement was truly reached in the spirit of collective bargaining,” said the Mayor in a statement. “The unions realized that we are facing unprecedented troubling times and were willing to extend the contribution shift changes until the middle years of the agreement while still protecting the interest of their membership.”

Donna Buckley, who represented the Medford Teacher’s Union, said in a statement: “…through Section 19 Bargaining, we were able to reach this agreement. It was inspiring to work with this group of Union leaders and the Mayor.”

In a statement released Tuesday afternoon, members of the Public Employees Coalition (PEC) praised the Mayor for helping bring about the agreement.

“The PEC appreciates the Mayor’s efforts to reach a mutually agreeable balanced resolution and preserve the integrity of the collective bargaining process,” said the statement.

According to city Budget and Finance Director Stephanie Muccini Burke, expected health insurance costs in next year’s city budget should decrease from $22 million to $16 million.

All City and School employees will be covered by health insurance through the GIC as of January 1, 2012.