Health Insurance Video
Health Insurance
Health Insurance expense for Town/School employees will cost taxpayers over $17 million in Fiscal Year 2016. That is 10% of the entire Town/School budget. We pay more annually for health insurance than we pay for our Police and Fire Departments combined.
My record on health insurance is at the bottom of this page but first, here is the town's poor track record managing health insurance:
1. In 2013, I exposed the fact that the Town did not put employee health insurance out for competitive bids for five consecutive years (2008 to 2013). Instead, the Town Manager continually renewed the Blue Cross health plans with MIIA, an organization where he served on the Board of Directors. (See what happens when the plans are finally put out to bid in 2014 below.)
2. Employees pay only 19% towards premiums for Single coverage and 23% towards Family coverage.
3. Part-Time employees (working just 20 hours or more) are eligible for the same taxpayer subsidized health insurance plans as full-time employees.
4. A new Municipal Health Reform law passed in 2011 was implemented in 2012.
> Copays and deductibles increased slightly but a fund was set up to reimburse employees for most of the new out-of-pocket expenses.
>The Town Manager entered into a 3-year "PEC" agreement with the town/school unions that essentially gave away our right to make further changes under this reform law for three years.
>This 3-year "PEC" agreement was drafted without legal counsel review and was not enforced in 2014 when plan deductible reimbursement continued in violation of the agreement.
5. In 2014, health insurance was finally put out to bid and Tufts Health Plan provided a competitive proposal that would have saved Andover taxpayers nearly $1 million.
>The Town Manager received the Tufts bid in January 2014 and allowed the process to drag out until just prior to Town Meeting in May.
>The Teachers Union denied taxpayers almost $1 million in savings by blocking a switch to Tufts over the objections of other town unions. They obtained this veto power under the 3-year PEC agreement referenced above.
> The Town Manager confirmed the health plan renewal with MIIA/Blue Cross BEFORE the vote at Town Meeting!
My record on health insurance is at the bottom of this page but first, here is the town's poor track record managing health insurance:
1. In 2013, I exposed the fact that the Town did not put employee health insurance out for competitive bids for five consecutive years (2008 to 2013). Instead, the Town Manager continually renewed the Blue Cross health plans with MIIA, an organization where he served on the Board of Directors. (See what happens when the plans are finally put out to bid in 2014 below.)
2. Employees pay only 19% towards premiums for Single coverage and 23% towards Family coverage.
3. Part-Time employees (working just 20 hours or more) are eligible for the same taxpayer subsidized health insurance plans as full-time employees.
4. A new Municipal Health Reform law passed in 2011 was implemented in 2012.
> Copays and deductibles increased slightly but a fund was set up to reimburse employees for most of the new out-of-pocket expenses.
>The Town Manager entered into a 3-year "PEC" agreement with the town/school unions that essentially gave away our right to make further changes under this reform law for three years.
>This 3-year "PEC" agreement was drafted without legal counsel review and was not enforced in 2014 when plan deductible reimbursement continued in violation of the agreement.
5. In 2014, health insurance was finally put out to bid and Tufts Health Plan provided a competitive proposal that would have saved Andover taxpayers nearly $1 million.
>The Town Manager received the Tufts bid in January 2014 and allowed the process to drag out until just prior to Town Meeting in May.
>The Teachers Union denied taxpayers almost $1 million in savings by blocking a switch to Tufts over the objections of other town unions. They obtained this veto power under the 3-year PEC agreement referenced above.
> The Town Manager confirmed the health plan renewal with MIIA/Blue Cross BEFORE the vote at Town Meeting!
My record on health insurance
2013
My efforts to control Andover's health insurance costs began in early 2013 when we launched TownofAndover.com and created much greater transparency on this massive town expense.
On May 6th, 2013, the first night of Town Meeting, I proposed an amendment to cut $1.1 million from the Town's budget for Health Insurance expense. I had 3 slides and was given just 4 minutes to convince those in the room that we should cut this bloated expense. We received 153 votes (40% of the vote) in support of our amendment. We lost by just 86 votes.
2014
At the 2014 Town Meeting, I gave the presentation below in an effort to save taxpayers $680,000. See below for the sequence of events that followed:
My efforts to control Andover's health insurance costs began in early 2013 when we launched TownofAndover.com and created much greater transparency on this massive town expense.
On May 6th, 2013, the first night of Town Meeting, I proposed an amendment to cut $1.1 million from the Town's budget for Health Insurance expense. I had 3 slides and was given just 4 minutes to convince those in the room that we should cut this bloated expense. We received 153 votes (40% of the vote) in support of our amendment. We lost by just 86 votes.
2014
At the 2014 Town Meeting, I gave the presentation below in an effort to save taxpayers $680,000. See below for the sequence of events that followed:
To view the presentation, please click on the image above.
