One of this session's most controversial initiatives has been changes to health care for public employers. The Senate proposed its plan earlier this year in SB 7, which would require 80/20 premium sharing. This bill as introduced had an opt out for local units of government.
The House countered with HB 4572, a bill that creates a hard cap on the amount that a public employer can pay. This bill had no opt out provisions.
Last week the House sent only the hard cap to the Senate, and we were concerned that communities would have no options. Last evening the House Oversight committee convened and took a hybrid approach.
The House-passed version of SB 7 gives a preference to the hard cap. However by a 2/3 vote of its governing body the governmental unit may elect instead to do an 80/20 premium sharing plan.
The victory for local units of government is that we may opt out ENTIRELY from either plan by a 2/3 vote of our governing body. If a city has a strong mayor form of government, the mayor must also vote to opt out of the plan.
We are grateful for the House for recognizing that these approaches do not work for all of our communities and allowing our members to opt out.
This bill will go back to the Senate for concurrance on July 13.
Samantha Harkins works for the Michigan Municipal League handling municipal services issues. She can be reached at 517-908-0306 or email at sharkins@mml.org
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