Runaway health costs are rocking municipal budgets
Submitted by seachange on Thu, 2010-03-11 04:30.
But there’s no will or willingness to roll back benefits granted in palmier times. Sean P. Murphy, Boston Globe, February 28, 2010 Elizabeth Debski spent eight years as Everett’s city planner, before losing her job in 2006 when a newly elected mayor installed his own team. But Debski did not leave City Hall empty-handed. In addition to her pension, Debski, at 42, walked away with city-subsidized health care insurance for life. If she lives into her 80s, as actuarial charts predict, taxpayers could pay more than $1 million in all for her family’s health care benefits. ... Runaway
Another argument for single payer
Peter Lowy, Brookline, Boston Globe, March 3, 2010 “Runaway health costs are rocking municipal budgets’’ (Page A1, February 28) was welcome news indeed. Rapidly growing municipal spending on health care is but one more nudge toward a single payer system that will prove the only way to control costs while ensuringthat everyone has affordable access to health care. Many of those who have health care coverage, expensive as it may be, are not pushing for reform. Neither are insurance companies, nor many medium-sized and large businesses. Current trends in the growth of health costs are untenable, and, while change never comes easy, history teaches that the harder one tries to hold on to an outdated status quo, the more painful the transition will be. © Copyright 2010 The New York Times Company
Better Benefits for All
Forget public, private gap, and work toward better benefits for all. Linda Hanson, Arlington, Boston Globe, March 3, 2010 In Sunday’s Globe, there was a front-page headline bemoaning the rising expense of health care costs to municipalities (“Runaway health costs are rocking municipal budgets’’). Sean Murphy focused on the generous benefits of the municipal systems, as compared to the leaner benefits that private sector employees receive. The argument is that stripped-down plans would be more cost effective for municipal budgets. Never mind that health care spending overall commonly sees double-digit annual increases and that neither our Congress nor our state Legislature has yet been able to significantly rein in those costs. While there is a Race to the Top in national education circles, there seems to be a race to the bottom when it comes to providing affordable, comprehensive, quality health care. What if private sector employees started demanding public sector health care benefits? Maybe that would give Congress the momentum to push through legislation that would support more equitable health care benefits for all. There may be some legitimate places to curb expenses, but overall, don’t we want to work toward more comprehensive, affordable health care for everyone instead of noting that public employees are unwilling to give up their benefits? The writer is a public school teacher. © Copyright 2010 The New York Times Company