Town a Step Closer to State Health Insurance for Workers

The town's unions are all onboard for the municipal health insurance change to the state's Group Insurance Commission, Town Manager Andrew Maylor said at Monday night's Board of Selectmen meeting.

The state's municipal health care reform law -- signed into law by Gov. Deval Patrick in June 2011 -- established new avenues for bargaining health coverage with employees and allows towns to change health care plan designs similar t GIC or transfer employees to GIC if that would produce at least 5 percent more savings than local health care plans.

The town's rising health care costs have been a concern for many years, with huge increases in costs anticipated. Selectmen voted to approve moving municipal employees to GIC last year if need be to deal with that impending crisis.

Selectmen praised Maylor's success in negotiating the change with the town's unions and cited it as a step toward a sustainable local government.

"This has been a long time coming, and for you, Andrew, to bring it to fruition, I'm grateful, extremely thankful," Selectman Tracy Watson said.