Posted on 03/26/2013 5:27:46 AM PDT by EBH
Judy Starcovic was one of nearly 230 Moen Inc. retirees who opened letters last week informing them their company-provided health care insurance will end as of Jan. 1, 2014.
“I was there 35 years and they told me I had health care with them,” Starcovic, 71, said Monday.
The letter, which was signed by Moen President David Lingafelter, informed retirees that as of Jan. 1, Moen will no longer offer health care insurance to approximately 440 retirees in the U.S., including the almost 230 who live in Northeast Ohio and the rest of the state, according to Robyn Hill, Moen vice president of human resources.
Hill cited the cost of insurance, coupled with adapting the company’s health care to conform to changes mandated by the health care reform bill for its current workers as the reason for the change. Those moves include extending the coverage to age 26 for dependents and paying 100 percent coverage for birth control.
(Excerpt) Read more at chronicle.northcoastnow.com ...
Welcome to the Soviet Union.
Pray for America
It's a crying shame though. I have known a fair amount of decent, hardworking family people who traded a better salary for good benefits. I think those people are fading as good benefits are going the way of the dinosaur. What you're seeing now among the younger versions of the benny chasers are folks who are not taking better jobs when the lower paying one they've got now is seeimingly more secure.
Yup, it's a depression out there.
True, but the story does not provide any information on what percentage they pay for her medical treatments and various other things. They do mention the 26 year old insurance plans that they have to use now and birth control. As we heard during the Republican debate when the one lady wanted free birth control, the conservatives laughed at her because birth control is only 10 bucks a month.
Well they passed the bill, and now we’re finding out what’s in it. Just like Nancy said.
Yes, but... These retirees likely are better situated than most. They likely have pensions in addition to their social security. Most of them will be able to pay the Medicare and supplementals without too much discomfort. Meanwhile, Moen is still employing a lot of people who have families to feed. I could easily see where a CEO who takes away his retirees health benefits is taking the least harmful course of action.
That's great for some but what about those who retired early and aren't eligible for Medicare? They worked their whole life until they couldn't go on and now are thrown under the bus?
Just one more example of how easy we humans become dependent on something then squeal like a stuck pig when that something is taken away.
Businesses never should have been in the business of providing anything but X number of dollars for Y hours of work or production or commission.
We all know why it started but that does not change the fact that a business is not your mother or father.
Just like the government tells us not to feed the bears because they become dependent on food which they do not have to forage for, we humans all succumb, to one degree or another, to what on the surface appears to be free handouts.
In fact, the free handouts will always be more expensive because market forces are not in play.
Market forces will always try to push the price down while subsidized anything allows prices to rise.
Want health care to cost less or at minimum not rise faster than inflation? Offer only catastrophic coverage. Everyone should pay something otherwise we will always be in this hyperinflation spiral with health care and the communists will continue to push for One Payer (government) rationed health care.
Wonder how many of these geezers voted for Obama. They have nothing to worry about. He’ll take care of them. They’ll be getting their government-issued little red pill when they exceed their allotted amount of “health care.”
Nicely said.
“Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”
-- John Adams; 2nd US President, 1797-1801
The figures you quoted are what is the demanded amount for now. But this is almost certainly going to escalate, maybe not today, and maybe not tomorrow, but soon, and for the rest of your life. Along with the escalation, there will be continuing curtailment of the services supplied, or inappropriate treatments offered, neither effective, nor, eventually, even to provide palliative care. The old will die in pain and with paralyzing disabilities.
But all that is for later. Today, your mom is probably OK.
If it was a contract which couldn't be changed unilaterally, then bankruptcy should be the only way it can be breached. Or if it was a union contract the union could renegotiate it and screw the retirees.
Kevin Moen of “the Play” (Cal/Stanford Big Game 1982) is completely innocent of all of this.
The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company did this last year, effective January 1, 2013...at least for salaried retirees.
“covering birth control” was the straw that broke the camel’s back.
Maybe not. Its not just for their employees. Its for every person on their insurance company’s rolls. Not to mention the subsidy for those too poor to pay anything for anything.
I’m sorry: these people made a contract with Moen and Moen with them. Moen is breaking that contract with the blessing of the feds.
And that is just wrong.
Obama-care!
They shut off the money faucet.
DuPont did the same thing to it’s retirees this year. After decades of explaining how they take care of their people, they tell their retirees they are not covered by the secondary insurance they had been getting[Medicare is primary and the secondary was retiree/DuPont paid].
Times they are a’changin’.
Big deal this happened to both my parents - after they retired the companies went out of business - they lost insurance and some money. They survived and redirected.
When I retired I was paying $88 a month for retiree health insurance. By the time I was eligible for Medicare, I was paying $440 a month.
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