MTA members led a successful fight this winter to stop health insurance deductibles and copays from drastically rising for hundreds of thousands of public employees and will continue organizing to restore full insurance coverage for GLP-1 drugs.
The state’s Group Insurance Commission voted in February to drop coverage of the GLP-1 medications, when used solely for weight management.
In January, Gov. Maura Healey called on the GIC to redesign insurance plans used by state employees and many municipal employees and aim for more than $100 million in cuts to workers’ health care. The GIC responded with plans to raise deductibles and copays and eliminate coverage for GLP-1 medications unless the drugs were prescribed for more than weight management.
MTA members launched a campaign with other public employees to oppose the cost shifts and eventually Healey asked the GIC not to implement new insurance plan design changes. She continued her advocacy for the elimination of GLP-1 coverage for weight loss. The GIC voted 10-7 in favor of dropping GLP-1 coverage.
Dean Robinson, a member of the Massachusetts Society of Professors at UMass Amherst, and the MTA's representative on the GIC, told the commission before its vote that it did not make sense to separate the issues of obesity and illnesses related to obesity.
“Obesity isn't separate from those conditions - it causes them. Fat tissue actively drives inflammation, insulin resistance and cardiovascular damage,” Robinson said. “When a doctor prescribes a GLP-1 for weight loss in these patients, they're treating the root cause of the heart disease and hypertension we're already paying to manage. The proposal draws a billing line, not a medical one. Same patient, same heart disease, same drug - covered with a diabetes code, not covered without one.”
The MTA described Healey’s reversal on copays and deductibles as a huge victory for workers, retirees and their families. The proposed cost shifts would have resulted in most plan subscribers paying hundreds of dollars more — and possibly thousands more — each year for health care. But union members and leaders are continuing a campaign to restore full coverage for GLP-1 drugs.
Bill Forster, a retired Cambridge Education Association member, helped rally retiree opposition to the proposed cuts. He maintains an email list of 480 members and their spouses, and encouraged them to call or email the governor and chair of the GIC commission. “We tied up their phone lines,” he said. “People on our side would call and say they couldn't get through.”
MTA President Max Page said Healey’s Health Care Affordability Work Group should partner with public sector unions as they have both negotiating expertise and market leverage for maintaining coverage of GLP-1 medications that is affordable for users and that won’t drive premiums higher.
“Health care is a broken system, but we cannot use that as an excuse to deny people access to life-changing medicines,” Page said. “The number of public employees buying insurance gives Massachusetts a great deal of influence in negotiating coverage with carriers. Likewise, within our union alone we have experts and researchers who can articulate the value of maintaining coverage of GLP-1s, versus the costs of paying for obesity-related health issues.”
MTA Vice President Deb McCarthy said it is unfair to abruptly end access to GLP-1 medications for people using them to support healthier lifestyles.
“We understand the budgetary pressures created by coverage of GLP-1 medications. But we need time to develop a strategy for making access to GLP-1 drugs affordable,” McCarthy said.
Rosa Taormina, president of the union that represents administrators working at state universities, has credited GLP-1 medications for improving her health.
“The Commonwealth has never singled out people with cancer or families seeking IVF treatment to close a budget gap,” Taormina said. “Why is it choosing to do so now for people living with obesity — a recognized, chronic medical condition that, like any other, requires appropriate treatment? When public employees’ wages fail to keep pace with housing, groceries and insurance premiums, there is no realistic way to ‘pay out of pocket’ for medications that cost thousands of dollars each year. This decision does not reflect fiscal responsibility — it reflects a choice about whose health care is considered essential.”
Sam Sharp, a member of the University Staff Association at UMass Amherst, said dedicated public servants should not be forced to leave their jobs to be able to afford health care.
“After losing well over 100 pounds with the aid of GLP-1 medications, the state of Massachusetts wants to take away what is a lifetime drug and condemn me back to immobility and isolation,” Sharp said. “This is so much worse than never giving them to me in the first place because they gave me three years of hope and progress. I went from literally not being able to shop for my own groceries to being able to run and dance again. If GLP-1s are taken away from state employees, I will have to find a new job because I will not let Massachusetts’ brutish cost-cutting measures send me back to a life that was not worth living.” T
For more information on advocacy for members' health care, please visit massteacher.org/action-center.
