More than a year after the passage of historic legislation meant to empower local governments in taming their health care spending, the region’s cities and towns have joined municipalities across the state in savings millions of dollars, but many could still do more – assuming they want to shift more costs to employees, a delicate prospect. State-mandated reports, required of those cities and towns that didn’t adopt the new law and obtained by the Daily News from the Executive Office of Administration and Finance, show that a number of local cities and towns could save hundreds of thousands of dollars of additional taxpayer money by lowering the portion they contribute to insurance premiums or by implementing the deductibles and higher co-pays of the coverage pool for state workers – the Group Insurance Commission, or GIC Continue reading →