NO PAIN FOR LEGISLATORS

As the Legislature completed the dirty but necessary job of cutting state spending to close a $190 million revenue gap, a refrain heard at the State House – especially when $65 million was cut from the Department of Health and Human Services – was that legislators should feel some of the pain that will be endured by the poor, disabled and elderly.

Rep. Lisa Miller, D-Somerville, offered a bill that would have given legislators a relatively small dose of that pain. Miller proposed switching legislators from the state employee health insurance plan that covers 100 percent of their costs after a $200 deductible, to DirigoChoice, which includes a $1,250 deductible and 80 percent of coverage after the deductible is met. The switch would have bolstered enrollment in Dirigo, the state’s initiative to extend insurance coverage to those who fall through the gaps. And it would have saved the state $400,000.

But last week the Legislature’s Insurance and Financial Services Committee voted unanimously against the bill, which means it will not come to the floor of the House or Senate. No gain in cuts, and no pain for legislators.

Even Rep. Sharon Treat, D-Farmingdale, a committee member who has been a staunch supporter of Dirigo and other efforts to expand access to health care, said she had mixed feelings about the bill. “I happen to think legislators work very hard for this low pay. On the other hand, I think $400,000 is significant,” she said, according to a news story on www.villagesoup.com.

The “mixed feelings” Rep. Treat struggled with may be tied to the double-edged sword of a legislature conceived as a part-time citizen body that increasingly requires full-time commitment. Legislators – 151 members of the House, and 35 senators – earn about $22,000 for their two-year terms, plus per diem allowances, travel benefits, health insurance and, if they complete four terms, a pension.

After the vote that killed her bill, Rep. Miller said her proposal came primarily from a desire to support Dirigo, though she suspected savings might come with the insurance plan switch. A member of the Health and Human Services Committee, she heard plenty of testimony from those who will be affected by the cuts to social service programs.

Rep. Miller doesn’t believe legislators are getting rich from serving. In fact, the view at the State House is that unless legislators can make their own hours as lawyers or real estate agents, own successful businesses or retire, it has become increasingly difficult to serve. Rep. Miller spoke of a fellow legislator – a single mother – who will not seek re-election because she needs to earn more money at her job. Ms. Miller, who works at a nonprofit foundation, switched to part-time employment when elected and estimates she loses $20,000 to $30,000 in salary each year she serves.

Sweetening the compensation pot or draining it probably wouldn’t change the current makeup of the Legislature. But the symbolic nature of switching legislators to Dirigo health insurance might have had value worth at least the $400,000 savings.