I know it is not in vogue to take the Health vote in perspective, but I feel it is necessary.
This story is getting national attention, so Gov. Deval Patrick is right when he says both sides need to cool it. However, that does not not change the fact that the language of the bill is ill-timed and poorly written.
The fact is that legislation like this has passed the one or both house of the legislation in recent years. However, that was before Wisconsin and although Patrick, Murray and DeLeo need to consider their state first, they must appreciate that they have a role in a national story and that that role has an impact both locally and nationally. That vote, whether reasoned or not, will hurt other people other Americans by diminishing the true assaults on working families in Wisconsin, Ohio and New Hampshire. True, they represent people in Massachusetts, but the implications in those other states could reverberate back to Massachusetts sooner or later.
The unions also need to put some perspective on this. By far the most important and frankly uncontroversial part of this legislation is the GIC. The municipalities should join it and frankly Patrick’s proposal earlier this year mandating it is a the correct course of action. I do not believe his proposal mentioned anything about deductibles or co-pays, but if it did that part should be dropped or simply lined up to whatever the state unionized workers already get. Maybe an arbitration panel could be brought it that could weigh whether communities really have no other choice.
There is a bigger target, here, frankly and that is Robert DeLeo. Only two years into his term and he has already begun to emulate the heavy-handed tactics of his predecessors. Illegal? No, but that does not change anything. He swings his weight around on casinos, he dithers on the probation department and now this. Consider probation as instructive. He did not do much of anything until the pressure ratcheted up and that, I think, harms the credibility of his proposal. That SCJ Chief Ireland supports it does not change the fact that DeLeo did NOTHING until the heat turned up too high. The same is true of the health care situation. He wasted time, two years in fact, on GIC membership rules and now, as the budget gap only yawns wider, he proposes something more radical and something that now is nationally problematic. Now DeLeo is dithering on Patrick’s health care costs bill that would have implications for ALL insurance, not just government employees. Indeed, that effort, however slower would have a much better long-term impact on municipal budget. However, DeLeo prefers a snail’s pace solution. This is his hallmark, especially on tough issues, that is until it’s too late.
There is some reason is trying to set a state-wide standard for collective bargaining because municipalities are so limited to what they can actually raise. Unless you are a wealthy suburb well-below your 2.5 levy limits, you are screwed. The oddity of this whole debate may be that a city like Springfield who is capped on both levy limits and ceilings under 2.5, stands to gain little if anything from this bill. They are a part of the GIC and, though they might get minimal help from the deductibles and co-pays, the city does not appear to see much benefit since they real savings are in the GIC.
As for the individual members of the House, they should each be taken to task, but it is important to remember their position, too. DeLeo rules the House with an iron fist (Murray does likewise with the Senate, but they appear to have a bit more latitude, maybe not though, that’s just my opinion). That so many voted against the bill is surprising, although I have also not double checked the roll call against the committee chairmanships DeLeo doled out. Still, the fear that members live in, cowardly though it is, explains much of where their support is coming from.
I have written about the Parliamentary status of the Mass House and Senate in the past on my blog, you may read more about it there as well as on this Health care problem. www.wmasspi.com
Speaker DeLeo surrounded himself with Yes-Men, therefore he does not have a chance to actually understand the full perspective of what he does. Then when the blowback arrives from his decision, he gets stressed out–and pulls his Yes-Men closer.
Since this is the way DeLeo is, the unions are going to have to push super hard to get a fair shake from the House.
“Gov. Deval Patrick is right when he says both sides need to cool it”
The story I read only mentioned Deval chiding union leaders. What has he said about the others?
“The most important and frankly uncontroversial part of this legislation is the GIC” With all due respect, it’s not the most important. The most important is that health care is being removed as a subject about which unions and management bargain. It has now become something that management can do without explanation, compensation, or consultation. Maybe GIC is great — in which case workers will be happy to join it. What this bill does is narrows the ways in which workers and management can work together for everyone’s benefit.
“That so many voted against the bill is surprising”
A lot of these reps have seen Speakers come and go, like Republican governors. Yet working people remember who sided with them and who didn’t. And with a character like DeLeo, one doesn’t necessarily anticipate the happiest of endings to his Speakership.
A few points
1. One, you are right, he was chiding labor, but the MMA’ s reaction was not as hysterical, but in no less need of cooling
2. Health care is not removed en masse. What is and is not covered would still be negotiated as would premiums. I agree that co-pays and especially deductibles (which are the more sinister of the two) should be bargained on. However, with whom a municipality insures as long as it covers what they agreed to is not a matter that needs to be monitored by collective bargaining. If an insurer is not doing what they are supposed to, a municipality must respond. The alternative is to suggest that the unions should get to negotiate over which brand of car the police use or which bank checks are drawn off of.
3. Like I said I have not cross checked the Committee Chairs to the vote…yet.
I think debate like this is good, but as the above commenter noted, a large part of this is DeLeo and his sycophants. If unions want revenge paint a target on his head if not for office itself then for the speaker ship.