State Rep. Matt Lori will serve on a bipartisan House committee to study a proposal to consolidate public employee health care plans.

The controversial plan has the potential to save taxpayers an estimated $900 million, but has been strongly opposed by unions and teacher groups.

“A lot of people just want to just reject this idea out-of-hand, but I think we ought to give it a fair hearing,” said Lori, R-Constantine.   (Lori audio clip – :13)  “The struggle over our current budget crisis shows that we need to do something major to get our state’s spending problem under control.  If this plan does as promised, it’s something we need to consider and I’m looking forward to working on the nuts and bolts of this legislation.”

A similar idea to consolidate public employee health plans was first proposed by Republicans in 2005, but failed to catch on since it lacked support from Democrat lawmakers.  With House Speaker Dillon – the leading Democrat in the House – supporting the plan, it looks as though there may now be enough votes to make it happen.

Before being elected state representative, Lori served on the Three Rivers Health Authority Board for eight years.  He said health care has been a long-time interest of his, and he is looking forward to carefully studying the proposal, including the numbers and data presented, to determine how well the plan serves taxpayers, public employees and the state as a whole.

For more on the House Committee on Public Employee Health Care Reform via a news release from House Speaker Andy Dillon, click here.

Source:  News release from state Rep. Matt Lori

Editor’s Note:  This story was updated at 10:45 8-29-09 to add the audio clip from state Rep. Matt Lori.