Retiree benefit cuts
AARP argued unsuccessfully that this violates federal age discrimination laws since younger retirees would still be eligible for coverage from their former employers while older retirees would see a reduction in benefits when they turn 65.
Whether or not a company continues to provide benefits to retirees is voluntary, but it is incredibly expensive and I don’t know how most companies could keep it up, and I think the temptation would be to cut out coverage for all retirees if it were legislated.
I’m not sure what I think about this as my dad has (and my mother had) private insurance from current jobs, military insurance as well as Medicare, so I’ve not been affected by insurance provided by a former employer.
However, my mother’s place of business was instrumental in keeping her covered when she was ill. She wasn’t retired, but was on a leave and they bent over backward to help her. I don’t know what would have happened had they not because she required a great deal of medical care as her health declined.
Food for thought.
(via Triple Venti)
The thing is, in many cases (such as my parents), things like retiree benefits and pension plans were the reason the unions took the deals that they did and employees at these companies worked for somewhat lower wages for the future “security” that these companies offered.
But now, these people reach retirement age, fixed income (and just how fixed depends on whether that pension is suddenly “underfunded” as so many are now) and to top it off, now they feel the benefits are too expensive.
The fact is these companies should have been planning ahead for these things when they made the agreements, but instead they underfunded pension, took shortcuts to save money short term, and now expect the employees that toiled for them to retirement to just accept this.
Now, you are right that Medicare and some other programs at times pick up the slack, but with Medicare also underfunded, as taxable wages go down (thanks to shipping more and more jobs off-shore) and they create “unique” things like the “donut hole” in Medicare, a lot of people are being left vulnerable and exposed.
And thanks to a business friendly Supreme Court, that exposure just got the “thumbs up” to continue to hurt seniors in the name of increased profits.