PROVIDENCE — A Superior Court judge has denied a last-minute attempt by the state’s largest public-employee union to block the Carcieri administration from imposing higher health-care premiums on state workers who retire after today.

Judge Mark A. Pfeiffer told the parties yesterday that the request was filed both too late and without proper explanation of who it would benefit, given that most of the 1,100 employees who are expected to retire as a result of the increases have already done so.

“What troubles the court is that we get a request for a temporary restraining order a day and a half before [the change] is to take effect,” Pfeiffer said from the bench. “… and there is no named plaintiff who will suffer any harm here.”

The judge ordered both the union and governor’s office back to court in late October to determine the overall merits of the case, namely whether the state was justified in legislating health-care cost increases back in May.

Kiernan King, Governor Carcieri’s chief legal counsel, hailed Pfeiffer’s decision yesterday as a win for the state.

The union’s last-minute plea, he said “is suggestive of a political strategy. If [union leaders were] truly, genuinely concerned about their members, they would have filed this action much earlier.”

Council 94, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, filed a motion on Friday seeking to block a new state law that reduces health benefits for state workers retiring after today. Since the change was approved, more than 12 percent of the state’s work force has opted to retire.

“The changes have forced employees … to retire before they had originally planned on retiring,” the court complaint reads. “Anyone who retires after September 30, 2008, will be subject to drastically different retirement health insurance benefits.”

At a hearing on Friday –– held in Newport because of a scheduling conflict in Providence –– Superior Court Judge Edward Clifton elected not to intervene and sent the case back to Providence, according to court spokesman Craig N. Berke.

Following yesterday’s decision, Council 94 President J. Michael Downey said the union will now look ahead to October. “We are really following through on the promise we made to our members that we would fight the changes made to their retiree health coverage,” Downey said.

As for the accusations of an 11-hour motion, Downey said the union believed it filed “in a timely fashion.”

“We felt as though we wanted to get it done before the law took affect and we did that,” he said.

Berke said the judge elected to wait until Oct. 20 to begin formal hearing on the case to allow enough time for the parties to respond to the initial complaint.

This latest court wrangle between Council 94 and the Carcieri administration was prompted by the General Assembly’s adoption, as part of this year’s budget package, of a Carcieri proposal for shaving $10 million off the state’s retiree health care costs.

Retiree health insurance was one of the last major gains by the state’s public-employee unions in the late 1980s.

State law allowed longtime workers to retire with the state paying 100 percent of their health-insurance premiums. Workers with less seniority were required to pay as much as 50 percent of the rate the state is charged for an active employee. In their case, the state not only paid the other half, it also paid the difference between that rate and the higher rate the insurer was actually charging for this older — and presumably sicker — retiree population.

Those who had worked for the state for at least 28 years could retire with the state paying up to 100 percent of their health-insurance premiums. But only 10 years of state work was required for the benefit. For example, a 60-year-old who retired after 10 years would have to pay 50 percent of whatever rate the state was paying for an active employee.

After today, the rules change.

A retiree will have to be at least 59 and have worked for the state at least 20 years to qualify for retiree health coverage. And those who do will have to pay 20 percent of the actual $789.76 a month cost to the state of a single health plan, which would translate into roughly $158 monthly for the retiree, according to the state retirement office.

Faced with this prospect, at least 1,271 state workers have retired since May, and the notices are still rolling in.

Within days, the Carcieri administration plans to offer what it describes as a lower-cost option to future retirees under age 65: one that would cost the retiree less — $99 instead of $158 monthly for single coverage, but also comes with a $2,000 annual deductible, where now there is none, and higher co-pays. The routine doctor visit that costs $10 today would cost $35, the patient would be responsible for up to 30 percent of the cost of a hospital stay or hospice care and rehabilitation services would be capped at 20 visits a year.

kgregg@projo.com