Firefighters and police, who have been lining the State House hallways for months to lobby for health insurance in retirement, finally got their bill passed by a one-vote margin in the House on the last day of the Legislative session last week.
The bill requires the state to pay up to 45 percent of the cost of health insurance for those officers and firefighters who retire before they are eligible for Medicare. The benefit could start once they reach age 50.
Rep. William Smith, D-Van Buren, the co-chairman of the Legislature’s Labor Committee, spoke against the bill despite his party’s support for it.
“There are too many equally deserving groups,” he said, yet all taxpayers will have to pay for the benefit. The strongest and most persistent lobbying won the day, he said, “while leaving others behind.”
Proponents of the bill said firefighters put their lives on the line every day and often stay in the job too long in order to continue to get health benefits.
“We need to take care of people who have taken care of us,” said Rep. Patricia Blanchette, D-Bangor. “This was not a paid, professional lobbying group,” she said of the firefighters in the hall, but rather “they are using vacation days or going back to a 24-hour shift,” after lobbying legislators in Augusta.
The bill was touch and go in the House, where it finally passed by one vote. Support was stronger in the Senate, but still largely along party lines.
The benefit is similar to the one offered teachers, who now have 45 percent of their retirement health insurance subsidized by the state. Neither group is actually made up of state employees, who get up to 100 percent of their retirement health insurance covered based on years of service.
Republicans argued against the plan, saying it would add to an already multi-billion-dollar, un-funded liability for pension and health benefits. The long-term cost of the program is still unclear, but some had estimated it as high as $100 million.
An amendment was put on the bill by Sen. John Martin, D-Aroostook County, which tightened up some eligibility requirements, but also exempted the cost of the program from the recently enacted state spending cap.
Gov. John Baldacci signed the bill into law within hours of its passage last Wednesday.
“This bill is important to all of us because we should be doing everything we can to protect those who protect everyone in this state so well. Health insurance for working families is one of my highest priorities,” the governor said.
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