Companies Rapidly Cutting Health Benefits

WASHINGTON - Many companies are dropping their promise of health benefits for future retirees, who now might have to stay on the job longer and rely on government health care in their old age.



Eight percent of employers with at least 1,000 workers said they had eliminated subsidized retiree health benefits for some workers this year, and 11 percent more said they probably would do so next year, according to a study released Tuesday by the benefits consulting firm Hewitt Associates and the nonprofit Kaiser Family Foundation.


Most of those affected were newly hired, but some companies said the change applied to workers who had been on the payroll longer.


The number of companies that offer health coverage to retirees has been on the decline for 15 years.

more: http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=541&ncid=716&e=6&u=/ap/20041214/ap_on_he_me/retiree_health

I seem not to think so.

Retirees Are Paying More for Health Benefits, Study Says


http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/15/politics/15health.htm...

December 15, 2004
Retirees Are Paying More for Health Benefits, Study Says
By ROBERT PEAR

ASHINGTON, Dec. 14 - Retirees who receive health benefits from their former employers saw premiums shoot up an average of 25 percent this year, a new study says.

The study, issued Tuesday by the Kaiser Family Foundation and Hewitt Associates, showed a continued erosion of retiree health benefits among large employers.

Companies are requiring retirees to pay a larger share of premiums and other health costs. While continuing to provide coverage for people who have already retired, about 8 percent of large private employers took action in the last year to end all subsidized health benefits for future retirees, and another 11 percent said they would do so next year.

"Prospects for retiree health coverage are slowly disappearing for America's workers, and retirees who have it will be paying more," said Drew E. Altman, the president of the Kaiser Family Foundation, which conducted the study with Hewitt, a benefits consulting firm.

Asked about Mr. Altman's assessment, Kate Sullivan Hare, executive director of health care policy at the United States Chamber of Commerce, said: "That's absolutely true. I can't disagree." The chamber represents businesses of all sizes.<snip>




http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/15/politics/15health.html

our health insurance (paid by the company) has doubled over the last 4 years. They said they were planning to continue paying it for us, because they felt it was important. But that has to be a huge strain on businesses.

Maybe this company is trying to make the workers feel guilty? Do they pay overtime? How many CEO's does your company have?

motives; they want to do the right thing. (none of us gets overtime).

I was just shocked at how much the premiums had gone up. If this is typical, it's no wonder that companies are deciding not to pay. I think lots of small companies operate on the edge of profitability. A hit like this could tip them over the edge.

Which would basically give them no incentive to continue covering their employees. Yet another hairbrained Bush idea!

rule would not change things much for any company with employees. It would change the rules for people who are self-employed. I forget the details, but the bottom line seemed to be that people who are self-employed would lose health care deductions.

are the ones that get fucked over the most...screw 'em, let them work until they drop dead, serves them right...

:mad:

don't.

Right on. I am waiting to hear some buyers' remorse. :)

Someone here on DU came up with this: buyer's remorse when you realiza that voting for Bush was far from being in your best interest.

eliminating health care coverage for people who already are retired. Those benfits should be vested in my opinion and untouchable outside of corporate bankruptcy. This will become even more common when Bush's Medicare prescrition drug benefit goes into effect since it contains incentives for companies to cancel or reduce any prescription drug benefit for current retirees.

We have pretty good health insurance benefits right now. I don't know how we'd manage if we had to pay it all ourselves.

And how do retirees fight any cut? It's not like we can go on strike or anything? Who's there in the companies fighting for us???

'03 profits over '00:
Aetna up 635%
Health Net 43%
Amerigroup 158%
American Med Security 985%.......

CBS Market watch said:

The industry's profit picture is making regulators sit up and take notice, causing them to question how some companies managed such a hefty gain. A study by CBS MarketWatch shows that 104 health-care providers tripled their profits from 2000 to 2003 while the S&P 500 grew profits by 5 percent during that time.

That article and the chart are linked at this page:

http://blog01.kintera.com/procare/archives/001013.html

But it was not that long ago that the Bushies decided to give tax breaks to corporations who cut back health care for their employees. That's right–they're being PAID to do this.

Perhaps some DUer with a better memory can provide further details.

that he intended to make things a lot better for "bizzniss."

Unfortunately, to people of his mindset, that means benefiting business at the expense of EVERYONE else.

Still waiting for that buyer's remorse to set in...

to companies who DO provide health insurance for their employees. Hasn't passed yet, it's part of some of the stuff they're kicking around to pay for bu**sh**'s plan to "reform" taxes and/or Social Security.

Sounds absolutely on a par with their other schemes.

Even the deeply evil Richard Nixon wanted that.

But, I guess insurance is a business too!

that y'all have to deal with south of the border. Ours may be feeling a pinch because of underfunding, but no one goes without coverage or goes bankrupt if they get sick here in Canada. My daughter lives in the US; working in the medical field and she tells me horror stories of having to deal with the HMO's all the time. And we can too pick our own doctors and they are always paid by the system.

They keep trying to chip away at our system but I honestly don't believe that they'll get away with it any longer. People are getting fed up with it and we want our system to work the way it did before the unnecessary cuts started.

here in the States. But now we know that they can, and they will.

and yet they are still able to pull off the socialized medicine = communist fascism to fool the stupid, fear-filled Americans.

The insurance companies and pharmaceutical companies are laughing all the way to the bank.

I have been preaching this to all the lemmings but they didn't believe me.

Well here we go...

was first being touted. Around '89 or so. The big brouhaha was that it would control the cost of health care.

It is to laugh!!! Ha hahahahahahaha!!

It could have been predicted that when you insert the profit motive into an essential need, greed-mongers crawl out of the woodwork.

So now we have HMO CEOs making millions of $$ per year, and medical care is being cut to the bone.

Again...."It is to laugh!" <In a gallows humor sort of way>

:mad: :mad:

http://www.mlive.com/business/aanews/index.ssf?/base/business-2/1103125333148750.xml

<snip>

In October, Visteon reported a $1.36 billion loss for the quarter and warned that production cuts at its key customer, Ford Motor Co., will continue to undermine its bottom line. Like other automotive suppliers, Visteon is also grappling with skyrocketing raw materials prices and fierce competition from foreign manufacturers.

Meanwhile, the compensation committee of Visteon's board of directors recently approved an executive retiree health care program that extends retiree medical benefits to key executives after they complete five years of service with the company. The new benefits were reported in a recent regulatory filing.

...more at link...

Was complaining to another that her health insurance had just risen $100 a month.

I had to laugh. I hope they up it another hundred on her.

She can join us in the faith-based healthcare system she voted for and pray she doesn't get sick.

under Bush and the Repug leadership.

:kick: