Retired laborers hit with six-fold increase in health care contribution

Senior property tax rebate: GONE
Senior property tax freeze: SEVERELY CURTAILED
SSI benefite: CUT

This on top of still increasing property taxes here in New Jersey, the state with the nation's highest property taxes to begin with. Seniors are being forced to bear a much higher burden than millionaires in New Jersey, LARGELY due to Chris Christie's reckless, uncaring implementation of his one and only idea regarding the state's economy: "Cut everything. We're broke."

What a great leader.

What kind of society have we become?

And here's one more nail in the coffins of New Jersey seniors.

Retired laborers hit with six-fold increase in health care contribution

Published: Monday, December 27, 2010, 9:50 PM Updated: Tuesday, December 28, 2010, 7:27 AM

By Steve Strunsky/The Star-Ledger

"They dig the ditches, pour the concrete and haul the bricks for the more specialized and better-paid workers on commercial construction jobs. And while they admit they’re the least skilled workers, they know they’re the hardest-working.

"We’re the backbone of everything that goes on in this country," said Artis Jackson, 72, of Elizabeth, a retired member of Local 394 of the Laborers International Union of North America, or LIUNA. "If it wasn’t for laborers, nothing gets built. We lay the groundwork for the job, so the carpenters can do their job, the plumbers can do their job, the electricians, the painters."

But like so many other professions, the laborers union has been devastated by the recession and the resulting building slowdown. In the latest blow, Jackson and the 1,360 other retirees from the LIUNA’s 10 New Jersey locals are being hit with a six-fold increase in their monthly health care contribution.

In a letter dated Nov. 30, the Board of Trustees of the New Jersey Building Laborers Statewide Welfare Plan informed retirees the monthly contribution for subscribers 65 and older was rising from $50 to $305 for plans with prescription drug coverage. Contributions to plans without prescription coverage rose from $50 to $156."

My premiums for secondary coverage went up AGAIN too this year as they do every year. Is this part of the "health care reform" we've all been hearing about?

Read the full article at this link: http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2010/12/retired_laborers_hit_with_six-.html