Never mind a free lunch — how about free health care?
If you’re a city employee, you can count on it — unlike most state employees (not to mention the private sector, where the vast majority help pay for their health insurance).
That sweet arrangement, the Rockefeller Institute says in a new report, is costing the city — and other jurisdictions around the state — a small fortune.
Even as the state and local governments in New York struggle to balance their books without new taxes. (See Carol O’Cleireacain’s piece on the opposite page.)
Time to end the gravy train.
Done at the behest of Lt. Gov. Richard Ravitch, the study says Gotham could save nearly $1 billion a year if city employees contributed to their health plans at the same rate as state employees.
Other cities, towns and school districts in the state together could save almost as much if they had similar arrangements.
Given what Ravitch calls a state “structural imbalance” of some $13 billion, “adjustments are in order,” the study said.
One such fix: “resolving a blatant inequity between the state and its local governments in the system of paying for health insurance for public employees.”
Health-care costs, the paper said, are a “large and growing portion of New York’s public spending.”
Indeed they are.
Meanwhile, state employees kick in 10 percent of the cost of insurance premiums for individuals, and 25 percent for families, averaging 18 percent overall.
That’s reasonable — and not much different from what many employees pay in the private sector.
City employees, on the other hand, cough up . . . nothing. Not one cent.
Public-sector unions often stress the need for “fairness” in budgeting.
This is one time they’re right: Taxpayers in the city deserve a break.
So, too, does the city’s budget.