Posted on 11/04/2013 5:50:37 AM PST by KeyLargo
Late health-care payments put burden on retirees
Read more about the Deadbeat Illinois series by liking By Greg Stanley GateHouse Media Illinois Posted Nov 03, 2013 @ 10:00 PM
ROCKFORD — Retired college professor G. Michael Killenberg found out the state of Illinois wasn’t paying his health insurance bills while waiting in his allergist’s office for a weekly shot.
His doctor turned to him and said, “‘You know, your people have never paid,’” Killenberg related. “I said, ‘Oh no, come on, sure they have.’”
But sure enough, his state health insurance plan for retired employees was running eight months to a year late on payments.
Killenberg taught journalism at Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville for 15 years. He left for the University of South Florida in 1988, where he finished his career, and now at 69 he and his wife split time between Wisconsin and Florida.
Some of his doctors are willing to wait; some aren’t. He no longer gets allergy shots. His wife had to switch her doctor of 25 years.
Killenberg has been sent to a collection agency once and threatened with it another time.
Delays are longer for retirees, like Killenberg, who have left the state, said Linda Brookhart, executive director of the State Universities Annuitants Association, an organization that represents about 208,000 retirees of Illinois’ university system.
(Excerpt) Read more at sj-r.com ...
Another state employee crying about his state government taxpayer paid healthcare plan being broke.
AWWW Cry me a RIVER, LEECH!
Hmmm, imagine that. What a shock
Water is wet. What else is new?
Illinois’ real pension crisis: Finding enough taxpayers to pay the bills
Posted By Ben Yount On October 22, 2013 @ 8:00 am
SPRINGFIELD — The top Democrat in the Illinois Senate says the state’s worst-in-the-nation pension debt is not a crisis. And he’s right.
Senate President John Cullerton [1] points out [2] that Illinois’ pension debt merely is slowly bankrupting the state.
WHO IS GOING TO PAY? Andrzejewski says Illinois cannot afford the generous pensions promised to public workers. [3]
Cullerton said the real crisis, in his mind, is making sure there is enough tax revenue to pay the states’ nearly $9 billion a year pension payment. But he is wrong.
Cullerton should be worried there are enough taxpayers to pay the bills.
Illinois have close to 1 million government workers — teachers, state employees, local cops and firefighters, and federal employees all due some sort of public pension.
But there only 4 million workers in both the public and private sectors combined, and the total public-sector pension debt is astronomical.
“The entire gross domestic product (GDP) of Illinois, the measure of all goods and services produced in the state, is only $644 billion,” Adam Andrzejewski, founder of the watchdog OpenTheBooks.com [4] told Illinois Watchdog. “The teachers’ retirement plan is underfunded by estimates of $100-$200 billion. That’s up to one-third of everything produced by the entire economy in a year. It’s a crisis verging on bankruptcy.”
Andrzejewski said there is no way 75 percent of workers in Illinois can continue to guarantee 90 percent of the costs for “gold plated” public pensions for just 25 percent of workers.
“Those government employees have guaranteed salaries, generous sick time and vacation packages, most have 80-100 percent paid health insurance,” Andrzejewski said. “None of this is found amongst rank-and-file employees in the private sector.”
State Rep. Tom Morrison, [5] R-Palatine, said Illinois needs to head off its real crisis and end defined-benefit public pensions.
VOTE WITH THEIR FEET: Morrision says taxpayers can veto pension costs by leaving Illinois. [6]
“The taxpayers that we are counting on to help subsidize retirements are getting more and more concerned about (paying) higher taxes,” Morrision said.
Morrison is one of a handful of lawmakers pushing for a 401(k)-style retirement plan.
“You preserve what (public employees) have earned up to this point,” Morrison said. “But going forward, you give them the ability to control their own retirement plans.”
Current pension reforms would only tweak the system for public employees. Illinois still will be facing billions of dollars in retirement costs while having to scale back services to the public.
Morrison said Illinois cannot afford to pay so much for pensions for so few.
“While (public employees) have a guarantee in the Constitution that says pension benefits cannot be diminished, there’s nothing in the Constitution that forces taxpayers to stay in Illinois,” Morrison said.
Contact Benjamin Yount at BYount@Watchdog.org [7] and find him on Twitter @BenYount.
Illinois (along with Cali and NY) is one of the Democrat “cornerstone” states for electoral victory.
That’s why I think they’ll eventually get a federal bailout.
Some of the smaller progressive paradise states may not.
My local doctor (Florida)has a sign in his office that they do not accept state insurance from Illinois. I asked why, and he said that simply do not pay. This was over a year ago.
What they need to do is change the retirement of anyone starting tomorrow to stop the bleeding. Continue to pay current and future retires as promised. I don’t feel sorry for the states at all. They put themselves in this position. You would think the tobacco settlement each state received would help some. Do they have casinos? Maryland just received casinos and is swimming in money. Top schools in the country.
Also note that he only worked 15 years at U of I?
No coverage from his other employers; his wifes employers?
Student until 25? Retired at 55?
Many non productive years?
I always knew that I should have gone off rock climbing for 10~15 years!!!
Guys like this “professor” make me ill. It sounds like he has two houses in two different states. He was a professor for his career. Professors make lots of money ($150,000-$250,000 per year) and “work” about 8 months each year. Tenured professors get 1 year off at half pay or 6 months off at full pay every 7 years. They get retirement benefits...and they get 20-30% of their pay each year (beyond what they get paid) put into a TIAA/CREFF account that is essentially an annuity. Cry me a river. Either this guy and his wife are extremely poor money managers...or they are full of it. I think both. ...and I bet they always vote DIM/LIB.
One very small disagreement about the pay.
One of my climbing partners is a full professor at a small four year college.
The average High School teacher in my area is over 100k!
http://www.familytaxpayers.org/ftf/ftf_district.php?did=14313&year=2012
They make near twice what he earns.
And they all have many days off!
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