Municipality News

This fall, the GIC welcomed five new municipalities.  The cities of Medford and Somerville and the towns of Arlington, Lynnfield and Wakefield all joined after this year’s budget gave municipalities expedited entry options into the GIC during this fiscal year.

This year, the most municipalities ever joined the GIC's health coverage effective July 1, 2009. Despite these challenges, annual enrollment ran smoothly and new municipal members will enjoy a smooth transition thanks to a team effort by municipal staff and the GIC. A total of 14,500 members from 14 municipalities, representing 29,000 lives, enrolled in coverage during enrollment.

Since joining the GIC in January 2007, the City of Springfield has saved millions of dollars, according to a report commissioned by The Edward J. Collins, Jr. Center for Public Management at UMass Boston's McCormack Graduate School of Public Policy Studies and the Rappaport Institute for Greater Boston at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government.

This July was the first opportunity for cities, towns, districts, charter schools, and planning councils to take advantage of the new municipal group insurance law, which allows municipalities the option of getting health insurance benefits for their employees and retirees through the GIC. New communities were pleased with both the transition and the savings that came with their move to the GIC. Signed by Governor Deval Patrick on July 25, 2007, the law provides communities with some relief from the financial pressures of rapidly rising health insurance costs.

The Town of Saugus Joins the GIC.

On July 25, 2007, Governor Deval Patrick signed into law Chapter 67 of the Acts of 2007 that allows municipalities the option of joining the Group Insurance Commission's health coverage.

The Boston Globe's editorial board recognized the GIC's efforts to provide quality health insurance and other benefits at a reasonable cost to more than 250,000 state workers, dependents and retirees.

The Boston Municipal Research Bureau released a report today which describes how Boston and other cities and towns are facing a crisis of unsustainable cost increases for employee health insurance.