Articles about Local Insurance that may be useful to Massachusetts retirees
MTF Report Misleading
OCTOBER 1, 2014: Last week, the Mass. Taxpayers Foundation (MTF) released its latest report on municipal retiree health insurance. As expected the report finds that the cost of municipal health insurance plans is unsustainable, and as such, benefit reductions are called for. Click here to view the report.
Teachers and Municipal Retirees Protected
July 2014 Voice: Retired teachers and municipal employees will receive a two-year reprieve from increased health insurance contribution percentage rates due to a provision contained within the FY15 state budget. The law extends the same protection to municipal retirees that has been long afforded to state retirees.
Healthcare Contribution Moratorium Approved
JUNE 30, 2014: House and Senate budget negotiators reached an agreement on the Commonwealth’s $36.4 billion fiscal 2015 budget over the weekend. The measure will be approved by both the House and Senate, and then sent to Governor Patrick later today.
Insurance Moratorium Pending
JUNE 6, 2014: Following the passage of the Fiscal Year 2015 budget in both the House and Senate, legislative conferees are now negotiating a final unified state budget that will likely receive final approval in late June or early July.
Insurance Moratorium Pending
MAY 20, 2014: State Senators will begin debate on the FY15 budget beginning Wednesday morning. The debate, which is expected to last at least three days, will determine the Senate’s version of the state budget for the coming year.
Of utmost importance to our Association is amendment #89, filed by Senator Ken Donnelly (D-Arlington). Senators McGee, Lewis, Moore, Keenan and DiDomenico have signed onto the amendment as cosponsors.
MAY 2014 VOICE: Members, who are state and municipal retirees receiving their health insurance through the state’s Group Insurance Commission (GIC), received welcome good news in March – health insurance premiums for FY15 will remain largely unchanged.
Association Seeks Two-Year Exentention On Retiree Premium Percentages
MAY 2014 VOICE: For the past three years, retired teachers and municipal workers have been protected from unfair increases in health insurance premium contribution percentages. Alarmingly, the legal protection expires on July 1, 2014!
Association officials are calling on the legislature to extend the retiree protection for two-years, through July 1, 2016.
By Kathy McCabe
Globe Staff April 10, 2014
Winchester selectmen have scaled back a plan to make retirees pay half the cost of their health insurance premiums, a plan that ignited a backlash from retired town workers.
The Board of Selectmen now proposes increasing premiums to 30 percent for people who retired before 2004, and phasing in the plan over an 18-month period, starting July 1. Later retirees would still pay 50 percent of their premiums, but it would be phased in over two years, according to the proposal.
Argue Before State’s Highest Court
February 5, 2014: For more than 6 years, we’ve been reporting on the activities of the Middleborough Retiree Insurance Group (MRIG) which organized back in ’07. “Our Association has a tradition of working with local retiree groups, particularly on the issues of municipal health insurance and local pension COLAs (Cost-of-Living Adjustments),” according to President Valeri. “That relationship includes Middleboro.
JANUARY 2014 VOICE: An issue of great concern to the Association is the end of the legal moratorium on increasing retiree and survivor health insurance contribution rates.
Within the Municipal Insurance Reform law (Chapter 69, Acts of 2011), our Association was able to secure language that has prohibited many cities and towns from increasing contribution rates on retirees and survivors over the past three years. The moratorium applies to any community that fully implements the provisions of Chapter 69.
Since 1968 the Retired State, County and Municipal Employees Association has been the leading voice for Massachusetts public retirees and their families. Join with our 52,000 members as we continue the fight.
