December 11, 2025
Her Excellency Maura Healey
Governor of the Commonwealth
State House
Boston, MA 02133
Dear Governor Healey:
We are writing to express our serious concern regarding the cost containment options presented at the Group Insurance Commission’s November 20th meeting. While we understand that the measures presented to the Commission are options and not proposals, we are nonetheless alarmed that cost shifting steps appear to under consideration.
Of the utmost concern is the option that would increase the premium contribution rates of surviving spouses insured through the GIC. The decades long policy of the state has been to maintain the insurance contribution premium percentage for surviving spouses at 10%, regardless of the percentage paid by the deceased spouse. This step has long been viewed as the morally right thing to do. Changing this benefit, particularly for existing surviving spouses, would represent a significant and extremely unfair increase in monthly costs for those who can least afford the expense. Of all the options currently before the Commission, we implore the Administration to remove changes to the surviving spouse contribution rate from further consideration.
As you know, healthcare affordability is a major concern for Massachusetts residents in general. For retirees, particularly those who are not eligible for enrollment in Medicare, healthcare affordability is no longer a concern – it has become a crisis.
Studies continually demonstrate that there is a direct correlation between high out-of-pocket costs and lower utilization of needed healthcare services. When people avoid accessing necessary healthcare services or ration prescription drugs due to the cost, it leads to worse outcomes and significantly higher long-term healthcare costs.
We would argue that overall member costs under the GIC plans are already high enough, if not too high in some circumstances. If the state were to increase copayments and deductibles, it would equate to nothing more than a cost-shifting exercise onto the backs of people who can ill-afford to absorb the increase.
Additionally, increasing out-of-pocket costs onto retirees or active employees do nothing to address the underlying systemic causes driving healthcare inflation. And while we understand that healthcare reforms are complicated, can be controversial and take time to implement, short and long-term costs will not be controlled until the root causes are addressed.
In the short term, there are several cost control options available to the Commonwealth and the GIC that we might be able to support. Earlier this fall we had what we view as a productive meeting with your staff and the GIC on what we refer to as Medicare Buy-In, which would allow for the transfer of the more than 11,000 non-Medicare eligible GIC enrollees into Medicare. The program, which has been implemented by several dozen municipalities, would prove to be a true cost savings for both the state and retirees alike. While no commitments have been made in terms of moving forward with implementation, there appears to be interest in doing so. However, due to implementation challenges, savings would not occur until FY28.
In the near term, Mass Retirees is interested in learning more about two options presented by the GIC that appear to have an immediate cost savings for FY27 – without cost shifting or degrading plan design. It appears that both the implementation of a uniform methodology for out-of-network providers in Massachusetts, as well as a shift to the Prudent Rx program have merit. However, we would like to learn more details.
Further, we encourage the Administration and the GIC to actively explore options now underway in other states that may prove to truly curb healthcare spending without degrading plan design or cost shifting. These include site neutral payments, PBM reforms, and price and payment transparency – to name just a few preliminary steps.
As we have communicated with our members, we do appreciate and thank you for the steps taken by your Administration and the GIC to present these cost control options in a public setting prior to any decisions being made. The 460,000 active and retired public employees who depend on the GIC for their healthcare deserve to be afforded the transparency and open dialog that has been provided to them through this process.
We stand ready and willing to work with you and the GIC in the weeks, months and years ahead to address these issues in a meaningful way that will deliver long-term results. However, we respectfully request that you join with us in presenting a unified approach in rejecting harmful cost shifting and a band-aid approach to cost containment.
Most sincerely,
Frank Valeri
President
Mass Retirees Association
Shawn Duhamel
Chief Executive Officer
Mass Retirees Association
CC: Lt. Governor Kim Dricoll
Secretary Matthew Gorzkowicz
Executive Director Matthew Veno
Group Insurance Commissioners
