Municipal health insurance reform in Massachusetts has been a hot topic in recent years, both within the Commonwealth and across the nation. But after a series of legislative amendments and months of heated debate, the Governor recently signed a compromise bill that ushers in a new era of municipal health insurance reform aimed at significantly reducing costs for cities and towns.
To briefly summarize, once the executive votes to accept this statute, it provides communities with two ways to save money on health insurance costs: The community may (1) implement health insurance plan design changes at the local level, or (2) transfer its subscribers into the Group Insurance Commission (“GIC” or “Commission”). Section 21 lays out both the procedure for accepting the statute and the procedure that a community must follow each time it proposes plan design changes. Section 22 discusses the substantive rules for a community that wishes to implement its own design plan changes, while Section 23 concerns the transfer of subscribers into the Commission.
This firm’s review of the law does not simply provide a summary of the key changes, as there will be no shortage of such articles elsewhere. Rather, the goal here is to condense the convoluted language of the legislation into a concise, section-by-section description of the new law in user-friendly terms. If you wish to view the law in its entirety, it is available at St. 2011, c.69, and will be codified in Chapter 32B. If you have any further questions about the new health insurance law and its potential effect on your community, please feel free to contact any of our attorneys.
NMP Review: Municipal Health Reform in the FY2012 Massachusetts Budget
Health Insurance Reform Reporting Requirements
