House Speaker Andy Dillon’s public benefits pooling bill seems to suggest he’s seeking mandatory coverage across a wide range of public employees. Specifically, it states that a public employer can only offer a health benefits plan that is not part of the state pool if the public employer can demonstrate that a local plan would offer savings of five percent or more below the cost of the state plan.
Frankly, if a pool is not going to be mandatory, we might as well all stop the discussion right now, because voluntary pools don’t work.
At least that’s the experience in Massachusetts.
Lawmakers in Massachusetts allowed municipalities into the state health care pool two years ago. Since then, only 30 municipalities have joined, possibly due to union resistance, according to a report by Michigan’s Legislative Service Bureau. As a result, Massachusetts lawmakers are considering reforms that would force municipalities to either join the state plan or lower their costs to match the savings the state pool produces.
