Posted on 10/05/2010 8:46:17 AM PDT by Qbert
3M Co., citing new federal health laws, said Monday it won't cover retirees with its corporate health-insurance plan starting in 2013.
Instead, the company will direct retirees to Medicare-backed insurance programs, and will provide reimbursement for that coverage. It'll also reimburse retirees who are too young for Medicare; the company didn't provide further details.
The company made the changes known in a memo to employees Friday; news of the move was reported in The Wall Street Journal and confirmed Monday by 3M spokeswoman Jackie Berry.
In its memo, the company said the new health-reform act would create new opportunities for people in their 50s and 60s to find affordable insurance.
Maplewood-based 3M (NYSE: MMM) is one of the first large companies to indicate that it won't tap a large federal-government reimbursement program created by Congress as part of the health insurance reform package, The Wall Street Journal reported. The rebate program was meant to encourage employers to keep in place their health-insurance plans for retirees.
3M said the new policy will begin in 2013 for retirees who are 65 and older and qualify for Medicare. Non-Medicare eligible retirees and their dependents will join the program in 2015.
3M noted that these changes affect current and future retirees of 3M, regardless of their retirement date.
The new policy is likely to save 3M money because it reduces the risk to the manufacturer for rising medical costs, according to a University of Minnesota professor interviewed Monday by Minnesota Public Radio.
Government is just like microsoft. They develop a (software) road to help people. The road is a dirt road. Then they begin to pave it with clumps of asphalt where there are holes. Patch Patch Patch. Eventually you have a really lousy asphalt road made up of patches and govt. calls that progressive.
#M is playing catch up with many other wise corporations who revised their retiree coverage in the last few years.
I thought I heard that current 3M employees would lose company coverage beginning in 2015 and would need to purchase insurance from the exchange.
or "... the government is not going to make you change plans under health reform."
It will "make" employers change your health plan under health reform.
It was done a number of years ago at the large corporation where I work. And this was way before Obamacare.
roflol@Obama = Jackass!
Those doctors are already here - My gatekeeper is an Indian whose English is poor and he has different ideas about what his job is here.
That’s scary. Trying to tell your doctor who speaks poor English what ails you and your doctor not knowing what his or her job is. Yikes. I had a friend who broke his arm in the U.K. and took an early flight back to the USA to have it treated because their doctors were so bad.I think he said the U.K. doctor was a Paki.
Most big companies want the government to take over health care. In the long run, it would be cheaper for them (more expensive for the public).
Many here don’t seem to realize that.
John Deere cut the retired insurance a year or so back, and have cut back on the current workers medical insurance.
Companies just can’t afford it. When those policies were put in place 30-50 years ago, people didn’t live as long, and end of life costs were much less. There are not enough workers, or profits, to keep paying 20 years of a non workers health insurance.
And that is what Medicare was designed to fix. Now it is universal health coverage for all paid by all. There are any number of reasons the new system is completely unsustainable.
For those firms that paid 100% of their employees health insurance, I agree with you. For those that require their employees pay say half of them, including retirees, I think that system works is in the out years, after 65, their current insurance becomes secondary to medicare. Otherwise, as you say, it is impossible for it to work given life expectancies.
Another perspective on the topic.
Motley fools take:
http://www.fool.com/investing/value/2010/10/06/3m-retires-from-insuring-its-retirees.aspx
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