In addition, the same amount has been frozen at the rate of $563.85 for two years and is scheduled to be paid again in September, 2005.

This two-year agreement was reached after lengthy negotiations between Quincy Mayor William Phelan and the sub-committee of the Health Insurance Advisory Committee. The sub-committee consisted of Steve Moynihan, president of the Quincy Retirees Association (QRA), a school department retiree; Pauline Kennedy, QRA Board member who is a Quincy Hospital retiree; and Paul Phillips, president of the Quincy Education Association.

On behalf of the Advisory Committee, Moynihan thanked Mayor Phelan, and also the City Council for defeating efforts by former mayor and now president of the City Council, Frank McCauley, to eliminate the reimbursement program. After losing that vote, McCauley made a motion to cut $300,000 from the program. That vote was defeated, 7-2, with McCauley and Douglas Gutro, voting in favor of the cut. McCauley, by the way, is a state retiree.

Moynihan pointed out that even with the reimbursement, the city will save over $2.5 million each year since the major portion of the claim experience is borne by the Medicare program and not the self-insured city plan.

State retirees will recall that their Medicare Part B reimbursement was lost during the Jane Swift administration and has yet to be regained. Like Quincy, Medicare is the primary carrier for these state retirees, saving the Commonwealth tens of million dollars each year.