Most postal workers at thetime protested being added to Medicare coverage. For us it amounted to a TAX on current pay with actually no future benefit.
Turns out it was an additional tax with no benefit.
I think you missed the part about the transfer of personnel from Post Office Department to USPS ~ we have our own law that specifies what our benefit package is to be equal to and that carries through retirement. Medicare is not an acceptable substitute ~ we already had 'better" and we still have "better" and all that happened was we paid money to the government to take care of you.
Paid for out of postage - ie., paid for by your customers.
Do you really think that the rest of society is not paying for your coverage? You don’t seem to have any idea about just who actually pays for your benefits. You do know that the government does not actually have any money - don’t you?
All is eventually paid for by taxing the rest of the people that do NOT work for government. Yes your better coverage is actually paid for by the people that you deliver the mail to... Weird isn’t it...
Nothing that the Post Office does provides enough money to provide either the wages or the benefits that are provided. After all of that is only provided by taxes.
Welcome to the real world!