Health-care costs dominate breakfast meeting

By Sara Brown, Town Correspondent

The rising cost of town health insurance costs was the main issue at a Friday morning breakfast discussion among state legislators and town officials from Burlington and neighboring communities.

The Legislative Breakfast was hosted by the Massachusetts Municipal Association and attended by about 25 state legislators and town officials from Burlington, Lexington, Arlington, and other nearby communities.

While topics ranged from local aid and consolidating services to tax cuts, the skyrocketing cost of town health insurance costs, and the difficulty towns face in trying to lower costs with union approval, was a main item on the agenda.

The meeting comes as town officials and legislators are trying to put together budgets for fiscal year 2011.

“The cost of health care, generally, is going completely out of control,” said state Sen. Kenneth Donnelly, D-Arlington. He said something has to be done about health care plan design in the next year, such as giving cities and towns more control over health care plans.

Rep. Jay Kaufman, D-Lexington, said giving towns more control over managing health insurance costs must be done soon, in time for municipal budgets to be addressed at town meetings.

According to Burlington Town Administrator Robert Mercier, Burlington’s health care costs could be addressed in the next six months. The town’s health care budget is over $10 million, a 10 percent increase from the previous year.

When the Board of Selectmen approved the budget at a recent meeting, they acknowledged that the program is generous, with relatively low co-pays of $10 for an office visit and $50 for a visit to the emergency room.

Mercier said Burlington might consider “plan design relief,” which would not require collective bargaining with unions. However, Mercier said the town “wouldn’t unilaterally implement it—we would talk to the unions, ask for some feedback.”

Rep. Charles Murphy, D-Burlington and chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, acknowledged that both state and local governments face tough economic decisions as they prepare budgets for fiscal year 2011.

Murphy, sipping a cup of coffee, said that Gov. Deval Patrick’s pledge to keep local aid level-funded was as unlikely as a unicorn in his backyard, gesturing out the town hall window to his home across the street. “The numbers aren’t there,” he said. “I think we’ve hit the bottom…as a result, we’re going to make some difficult choices.”

Rep. Paul Donato, D-Malden, said coordination of services for small cities and towns is another option to help budget problems.

For example, Burlington, Woburn, Arlington and Lexington could share 911 services. “We could have five or six 911 services throughout the Commonwealth and save a host of money,” said Donato, chairman of the Committee on Municipalities and Regional Government.

Mercier said that this is a long-term option for the town. “We’re talking about all of that,” he said, including consolidating 911 services and small departments such as animal control and the Board of Health. “It takes a lot—it won’t happen overnight,” he said of consolidation, which would save the town hundreds of thousands of dollars.