I'm thrilled that 70% WITH insurance like their plan. What about the rest of the freaking country??
We made some serious retirement decisions based on the promise that if my wife made 30 years with the phone company we would recieve life time health care.
We actually watched our 401K, which they shoved the old retirement system over to "so you can manage your own retirement" drop from $89 a share to $1.12 a share as Enron tanked. That happened as it became apparent that Nachio and Authur Anderson had done the same thing at Qwest as Ken Lay and Authur Anderson did at Enron. Just like Enron employees could not sell their shares unless you retired or quit and if you quit before retirement age of course you had to re-invest the funds and pay a 10% tax penalty for the withdrawl.
That's when the company dumped the retiremnt system on the Feds. So right now my wife gets no retirement till age 65 instead of 57 when she got 30 years. We also have 30,000 shares of Qwest that is worth $18 a share less than we paid for it and $71 dollars a share less than it's peak. When by the way the upper management was selling 9,999 shares per day per person ala Enron. Yeah right, plan for your retirement. We would have much better served to have taken the %12 of my wifes saalary she contributed for 30 years and put in the top dresser drawer. At least we'd have the pricapal.
I don't even get THAT angry any more because we made a decision that the health care, given my problems was worth more than the retirement and we had to ride the share/401 drop out. My bad.
My wife "retired" in 2002. This year we recived notice that the labor department had sided with the company and that retirees are not employees. Thus we can not be covered by union bargaining by the Communication Workers of America.
On January 4th we recieved notice from United Health Care that we now had to pay a premium. Our free life time insurance now costs us $360 a month. Not only that, they are setting all the retirees up for failure. You can not pre pay. You must pay the premium monthly with the supplied coupons. If you are late by more than 15 days on any payment you are canceled. If you accidently bounce a check, you are canceled. If you not enclosing the coupon makes it so they can't post your payent before the 15 days, you are canceled. Yeah, that's real fair and ethical.
Oh, they also required that I go on Medicaire or be canceled from UHC. That cost me $147 a month. It also puts UHC third in line to pay any claims on me.
So in the last year the benifits have been cut and we have been presented with $6084 in annual exspense that was not a part of our retirement plan. Now I know that compared to some it isn't that big of deal. My retired sister now pays $560 per month her her health care. MY brother got a 7% raise last year and his increase in his share of his health care premiums went up $16%
If the system works for you are you are flush enough that the premiums aren't a problem great I'm happy for you.
We do happen to be the only country in the developed world without universal health care.
I had to have a tooth pulled a while back. I have to admit I very lucky to actually have some dental coverage. It only cost me $87 out of pocket. While in the chair with the in network dentist. In her huge office, nicer than my house with over 40 employees, I asked just how was that business model working for her. She admitted right now not well with fewer people actually having any coverage and money tight.
The next question was, okay you, like doctors essentually only see people now when the condition reachs a point the person can't avoid it. She admitted that was true. Okay so what would prentative care cost? With two exams a and a cleaning and say one filling each year $500 per year. "Anybody can afford that". Really? I'm a freaking coal miner in Appalachia with 4 kids, do you really think I have $3000 a year to spend on preventive dental care or preventative health care?
80% of all bankruptciers in America are caused by illness and health care cost.
My wife and I had decent jobs with benifits. We also had a chronically ill daughter. Even though we had insurance our share of her care ran in excess of $30,000 a year. That was after insurance. Without divesting of all assets we did/would not qualify for any goverment programs.
The fact that we as a group are sitting here talking about buying guns we want but don't need would indicate to me that we, as a group are more affluent that the average American. For the vast majority of people in this country the system simply no longer works!!
Oh, yesterday I got some coupons in the mail from the dentist for $100 off every filling and $200 for all crowns. Things mustr be getting tight.
