Public and private employers that provide traditional insurance plans for their employees have been experiencing 15% annual costs increases for a couple of years now. Last year in 2006, Milton's citizens faced the impact of such an increase as it swept through the budgets of every department. It stands to reason that a large cost item growing at 6 times the revenue limit imposed by Prop 2 1/2 creates a recurring and unsustainable budget buster. Our town administrators, employees represented by their unions and citizens are all smart folks who can see that new approaches must be explored, experimented and implemented or we face an annual cycle of debates on Overrides versus Layoffs, which benefit no one.
Our national approach of employers providing subsidized health insurance to employees is an echo of wage and price controls imposed during World War II. Employers were restricted from raising employee wages and responded by providing non-wage benefits, like health insurance, to entice and retain employees. 65 years later, we have institutionalized an approach that insulates the health care consumer and provider from the market benefits that have reduced the cost of living so drastically over those same 65 years. Perhaps this realization is penetrating our collective thinking at last. Even the leadership of our Democratic dominated Commonwealth have recognized (in the case of auto insurance) that insulating consumers from market forces induces behavior that costs us all collectively more than we should have to bear.
Over the coming weeks and months, the members of the Milton Republican Town Committee will highlight on this page alternatives that are being explored in the private sector that could bring behavioral and cost changes that break this upward spiraling budget problem which will inevitably lead to drastic measures. Stay tuned. Here's to your (and our town budget's) health!
No comments:
Post a Comment